Emerging Artist Reviews

Album Review: Flame of Life "Magna"

by The Metalverse

Updated January 24, 2026

Alternative rock band Flame of Life from New York released their latest album, Magna, on December 19th, 2025. Magna features songs recorded in 2021 and in 2024 while the band was traveling across Colorado, taking inspiration from the state's wildlife and desertscapes.

The 17-track album begins with Voremare, which wastest no time, introducing itself with fuzzy ambient guitar and emphasised eccentric sing-spoken vocals as dark keyboards join the mix. The song has a raw mix as sections cut between singing and guitar and electronic keyboard pieces. Cavaral starts with distorted vocals that hold long notes as ground buzzing ambience, and what sounds like programmed guitar/bass. The song has a very experimental, trippy vibe to it that showcases Flame of Life's eccentricity and unconventional writing.

Veavat feels like a continuation of the first 2 songs, featuring the same programmed bass and singing style, almost feeling like the same song. Dark ambience and percussive tapping are introduced alongside familiar tones from the first 2 tracks. Kaeshi starts off with choppy instrumentals and layered vocals that create a haunting, fever-dream-like sound that instills a sense of emotion in the listener. Some of the programmed instrumentals remind me of soundtracks of retro video games like the original DOOM.

Goevi follows the sound of the previous songs, bringing in the ambient guitar and chopped instrumentals while occasionally bringing back the "retro game" sound that I mentioned earlier. Overall, so far, Flame of Life has a very experimental sound that seems to take from some alternative rock genres while creating unique ambient soundscapes.

Next is Te Mai Ufolt, which starts with lofi production as emphasised singing and instrumentals similar to the previous tracks continue. Soon, a dark, industrial ambience is introduced, adding to the eerie atmosphere as distorted key melodies dance across the frequency range.

Aeves bounces layered vocals back and forth as the retro game vibes are brought back with renewed intensity before building into more industrial ambience. Ara Leime brings the keys back to the forefront alongside vocals while keeping a similar sound to the previous tracks so far.

Seimore Afaid brings a clean guitar to life, introducing a fresh element to the song. Dai Ash Gore adds a bright synth tone while following a similar chord progression with programmed instrumentals to some of the earlier parts of the album. Tou Amael starts with dark ambience as echoing vocals reintroduce the "trippy" vibes from earlier.

Some other bigger changes happen during Kataloi as a particularly industrial, distorted atmosphere adds to the hauntingness of the atmosphere and Disco Aleomt, which brings back clean guitar and heavily distorted guitar riffs, adding in alternative rock or metal influences.

The final track Noemai follows the setup of the rest of the album while adding bright guitar riffs to further the metal influences.

You can stream Magna, available on all streaming platforms now.