Album Review: Grace Hayhurst – The World Is Dying (Self Released)

British progressive metal guitarist/vocalist Grace Hayhurst will release her debut full length album ‘The World Is Dying’ on June 27th, 2025.

A very talented individual with a liberal idea of what progressive rock and metal music should be, Grace Hayhurst challenges with this debut record. A positive challenge, but one that needs time and patience to fully appreciate. Especially when it comes in the form of a track that passes the 12-minute mark.

I’ll get to that one, but for now, the album’s synthy cinematic intro and likable title track are what greets as The World is Dying gets started. Obviously, the focus is on the latter, but as far as intros go, Prologue is great and flows nicely into the dynamism of the title track. Pushing melody into a more prominent place, Grace expands on her vocal range here, delivering a lively and catchy progressive rock tune that just so happens to have plenty of weirdness about it to.

A lot of the more ‘unusual moments’ of this record come from Gace’s explorative nature and unwillingness to conform. It’s a progressive album with big riffs, string quintets, drum solos, a French horn, and so much more. Sure, at times, this isn’t always agreeable, but like all great music, it has differing levels of appeal. Variety, it’s the spice of life, and this is not an album lacking in that department. Nor is it an album with nothing to say. Thanks to clean and clear vocals, we can hear all that Grace has to say and sometimes it comes with a snarl.

And It’s Our Fault is an effective example of Grace ‘heavying’ it up with a kickass chorus, but this is also a track that delivers a cacophony of rich melodies. Whereas Us Vs Them has more traditional progressive ideas, which might sound like an absurd thing to say, but once you hear it, you’ll understand. It just sounds familiar, focuses on guitars, and twists and turns in less wacky ways.

One of the more powerful efforts, especially vocally, is Our Forest, The Earth and here Grace manages to display a desperate passion that soars in the chorus but has a wildness elsewhere. Heck, even a very cool sounding guitar solo feels fired up. It’s a fascinating track, and a personal favourite, even if I am also quite impartial to Take Off’s creative rhythms and ambitious direction.

While nothing about this album should be summed up as extravagant, it doesn’t mean the word doesn’t start to pop into the mind as the album reaches its twilight phase. Why extravagant? One word – Revolution. A near 12+ minute track that embodies everything Grace Hayhurst has done on this album, and then some. It’s a wild ride of ups and downs, peaks and valleys, highs and lows, and there’s simply nothing quite like this elsewhere. It’s an exhausting listen that reveals more and more layers over multiple listens. Which, thankfully, it thoroughly encourages the listener to do.

It’s not over yet though! Grace offers up two more tracks, but in very different, and very short, forms. First, there is the gloomy Armistice, where the repetition of the ringing melody starts to create a certain level of discomfort. Then there is sweet sound of Absent Futures, a likeable way for the album to finish.

It’s a challenging record, but it’s one that all fans of genre-bending progressive rock and metal should relish.

Grace Hayhurst – The World Is Dying Track Listing:

1. Prologue
2. The World is Dying
3. And It’s Our Fault
4. Us Vs Them
5. Our Forest, The Earth
6. Take Off
7. Revolution
8. Armistice
9. Absent Futures

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