Album Review: After

Every now and then you hit play on an album and instantly feel like you’ve stepped into someone’s actual lived experience, not a concept, not a story, but a moment where life genuinely changed course. Channeled’s new album After is exactly that. It’s the sound of waking up in a different reality and trying to piece it all back together through guitars, tension, chaos, and some brutally honest songwriting.

Ben Ruegg’s near-fatal grand mal seizure in 2020 is the shadow sitting behind this entire record. You can hear it, not as trauma porn, but as raw clarity. After isn’t written about the event; it feels like it’s written from inside it.

And musically? Holy hell – This thing slaps.

Track 1 – After

A slow-burn intro that sets the atmosphere without saying a word.
Pure guitar ambience, distorted, dusty, lightly riffing like something Tool would throw on as a scene-setter. It’s the calm before the storm, and you immediately know this album has intention.

Track 2 – Beyond The Realm of Being

We’re straight into the meat, riffy, heavy, and with that perfect head-nod tempo. Think I Am Giant if they leaned harder into atmospheric post-rock with a vocalist channeling both Biffy Clyro and Chester Bennington depending on the moment.

The guitars drop out midway, leaving vocals floating over a bass line that carries the whole weight of the track… then it slams back in with a flanger-soaked guitar wall that sounds absolutely massive. Layered, clear, powerful. Properly epic.

Track 3 – Maverick

Clean, sparse percussion and a pulsing guitar riff set the scene.
By the one-minute mark you can feel the build coming, and at two minutes the dam breaks, open hats, driving bass, full-band explosion, and Ruegg belting out that Chester-style howl again.

Melodic, raw, emotional. If Biffy Clyro and I Am Giant had a lovechild, Maverick would be it.

Track 4 – Again

Wicked guitar intro with a bit of Stone Temple Pilots meets Shihad energy. Less intense, slightly more mid-tempo, with a melodic guitar line that leans almost U2-ish in its floaty, chimney tone. The drums don’t show off – they glue everything together, shifting to ride cymbal in the chorus and opening the track right up. Subtle, smart songwriting.

Track 5 – Good Love

Same sonic palette as Again, but with the energy dialled right up. It’s perfect rock tempo, not rushed, not dragging, and the build into the chorus is huge.
The hook explodes like stadium-era Muse; big, soaring, triumphant. Proper arm-in-the-air stuff.

Track 6 – Interpretation

Absolute monster. This is the Deftones moment, and Channeled knock it out of the park. The riffs? Dynamite on both guitar and bass. The drum/guitar/bass locking is so tight it’s actually rare you rarely hear them interwoven like this outside of high-tier alternative metal. Ruegg’s vocal phrasing sits perfectly inside the riff structure, and the unexpected time-signature shifts show a level of songwriting maturity that deserves a stupid amount of respect.

Easy 10/10. Maybe the strongest Channeled track ever.

Track 7 – In The Interest of The Quantum Realm

Dissonant, riffy, teasing you for nearly a minute before it finally unloads. And when it hits? It’s massive. Guitar feedback screaming like a siren, rhythm section carrying the entire track while the lead guitar goes feral over the top. It’s chaotic in places, but deliberately so, exactly the kind of controlled madness that keeps you replaying it. Instrumental other than a few samples, but doesn’t need vocals. 3:33 of absolute glory.

Track 8 – Perception

Hits like Soundgarden in their darker, deeper moments, but with far cleaner production and way more musical intricacy. You can feel the grunge roots, but the execution is far more modern and refined. As a drummer myself, the beats on this track are sneaky, they sound simple until you realise how technical they actually are. The bass is hidden perfectly, which is how you know it’s world-class. If you don’t notice it at first, that means it’s doing its job flawlessly. A big, emotional, immersive track.

Track 9 – Way Beyond The Realm of Being

A collab with Chasing Titans, and you can hear that immediately. Sampled intro, heavy modern rock feel, and Linkin Park-influenced vocal intensity straight out the gate. Chester-style screams, Incubus-style distorted guitars, but still unmistakably Channeled underneath. Drums sound programmed or sample-based here, but it suits the vibe. Angry, urgent, cathartic.

Overall Verdict

This album is very, very damn rad. Channeled manage to pull influences from everywhere 90’s grunge, 2000’s alt-metal, modern prog rock, and fuse them into something that feels completely theirs. It’s emotional without being depressing, heavy without being try-hard, and musically mature as hell. If I had one tiny structural tweak, I’d move Interpretation or In The Interest of The Quantum Realm slightly earlier in the tracklist, just for pacing. But where they are doesn’t hurt the record, and the flow still works. Phenomenal band. Phenomenal album.

Listen to After. Let it hit you. Channeled have levelled up.