This is the début album of these French death metallers.
This is modern technical death metal that will easily find fans in people who like bands such as The Faceless, Gorod, Decapitated, Aborted, Wormed, First Fragment, etc.
Algorithm of Destruction has a clean, precise sound that Continue reading “Red Dawn – Algorithm of Destruction (Review)”
This is the début album from this Italian death metal band.
Here we have 34 minutes of music that combines elements of both technical and brutal death metal into its feral core. Featuring guests from Hideous Divinity, Deceptionist waste no time in establishing themselves as cyborg-enhanced death metal warriors.
Dealing with the type of concepts that Continue reading “Deceptionist – Initializing Irreversible Process (Review)”
Fallujah are from the US and this is their third album of progressive death metal.
Fallujah are one of the more interesting and individual bands out there. Their previous album The Flesh Prevails was an exceptional release that really showcased their blend of technical/progressive death metal, with bright melodies and soundscapes created with ease, all wrapped around a modern death metal core.
They have now returned with Continue reading “Fallujah – Dreamless (Review)”
This is the début album from First Fragment, who are a Canadian Technical Death Metal band.
Upon pressing play, my first impression is a jaw-dropping one. This is Technical Death Metal and then some. As it turns out though, there’s even more than just complex craziness going on here.
First Fragment can certainly play. At first glance it could seem as if all of the instruments are all over the place. Although that’s a good thing in many ways, crucially on Dasein, they’re all reined in appropriately for the needs of the song, rather than just let loose to roam and explore where they see fit, (although it does feel like that in some places).
Enthean are from the US and this is their début album. They play Black Metal.
This is progressive, technical and symphonic Black/Death Metal. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but then this is a band who have a lot of different influences. I hear bands like Zyklon, Dissection, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Septic Flesh and Fleshgod Apocalypse in their sound.
Continue reading “Enthean – Priests of Annihilation (Review)”
Imperium are a technical Death Metal band from the UK. This is their second album.
Ahh, Death Metal, most reliable of all musical styles in many ways. All you need is some decent blasting, aggressive vocals, a production with punch and you’re in business. Enter Imperium.
The Zenith Passage are a Technical Death Metal band from the US. This is their début album.
Featuring former and current members of The Faceless, Oblivion, Fallujah and All Shall Perish, you already know that there’s a wealth of talent behind this band before you even press play.
The aforementioned bands also give you an idea of what type of material that The Zenith Passage play too; combining the modern/futuristic Death Metal of The Faceless and Fallujah, complete with keyboards/electronics and otherworldly atmospherics, gets you a pretty good idea of how Solipsist sounds.
The music is mostly frenzied extremity combined with seasoned atmospherics that’s both highly melodic and brutally sharp. Guitars shift and turn while the drums are an endless exploration of blast beats, double bass and maniacal rhythms.
As should be expected from the people involved in this, the level of musicianship is absurdly high. With so many complex guitars parts, twisting melodies and outright mind-ripping axe-shredding, Solipsist doesn’t leave the listener wanting in the technicality department. That the mayhem is occasionally punctuated by more atmospheric and relaxing moments just serves to make the extremity all the more powerful.
The singer has the kind of rapid-fire bark that suits this type of frenetic music. He seems almost in a race to keep up with the speed of the guitars, and although he’s always destined to fail at this, it doesn’t matter as the trying is the important part.
If you’re a fan of the style of music that The Faceless play, but prefer their earlier material which had less/no clean vocals, then I would heartily recommend you check this out. Hell, if you’re a fan of techdeath at all, I would recommend you check this out. Basically, check this out.
Job for a Cowboy are a US Death Metal band and this is their fourth album.
On this release Job for a Cowboy have refined their Death Metal further, adding a progressive sheen to their technical assault. Ambitious and bold, this is a game-changing release for the band in many ways, demonstrating that they are willing to do what it takes to reinvent themselves on their own terms.
The solid and modern Death Metal core of the band remains, but on Sun Eater this is complemented by additional ideas and different flourishes to what they have tried before, including nicely wandering basslines and progressive Metal explorations that truly flesh out their sound more than in the past. On Sun Eater it seems they have really pushed the envelope with their experimentation.
It’s really good to see a band that are not content to stay the same with every release; while still retaining their own identity the band have moved forwards with their style and embraced a more Death/Cynic aspect in addition to what they have previously done. This enhanced songwriting is apparent throughout this album.
The songs are complex, varied, layered and have a lot going on. Entwined melodies and eccentric grooves create all manner of intriguing soundscapes. The bass, which is always something I love to hear, is a major player in the band’s updated sound.
Note should also be made of their singer. Although he’s always had a charismatic growl, his performance on Sun Eater is probably his most diverse and enjoyable yet, with his growls and screams being flawlessly delivered and well-judged. His engaging vocal rhythms remain intact, even though the music has morphed and mutated around them.
Due to the above, Sun Eater offers less instant gratification than its predecessors, but repeated spins shows this to be a positive thing as the album grows on you like a plague, (in a good way).
Having successfully fully transitioned to this new progressive Death Metal style, this album is hugely impressive.
For fans of Obscura, Gorguts and the like, this is damn near essential.
This is the fourth album from German Death Metallers Dead Eyed Sleeper.
This has a very tasty sound, thick and heavy without losing clarity or definition.
The singer’s expressive growls and screams are ably performed and have an energy to them that’s undeniable. Powering along with passionate aggression and meaty delivery, he leaves an impression.
The same could easily be said of the music, actually; energetic, passionate and aggressive. The band’s take on Death Metal is familiar enough to be instantly satisfying yet differentiated enough to sound interesting and fresher than most similar bands. Elements of brutality rub shoulders with more involved technical and progressive flourishes that leave the band standing separate from a lot of their peers, which in my mind is no bad thing at all, nor is it an easy thing to achieve.
These five tracks are expansive forays into Death Metal, making the most of what the base genre has to offer, but fleshing it out with extra influences and snatches of mournful and dirge-like melody. These Doom-influences serve the band well, providing ample opportunity for them to show off their emotive side. When this is combined with the technical and/or progressive aspects of their sound it’s a heady combination that marks the band out for great things as far as I’m concerned.
At the end of these 29 minutes the play button is pressed again. It’s a hallmark of good music that you immediately want to hear it a second time and you also want more than just what’s contained on this album.
Very impressive and very recommended.
This is the second album from Canadian Death Metal band Corprophemia.
Playing savage Death Metal that has elements of the brutal and technical styles, this is a modern approach to the genre that injects a bit of Deathcore and slam into the mix to further increase the violence factor.
Canada seems to be very good when it comes to this kind of thing. Fellow Canadian Death Metallers such as Cryptopsy, Deformatory, Pronostic, Antlion and Unbreakable Hatred to name but a few have all released some top quality music in the not too distant past and we can now add Corprophemia to that list as well.
The singer has a fine set of lungs it seems, with his clipped barks reeking of aggression. His is a very satisfying voice and perfectly complements the precise and exacting nature of the music.
So what of the music? It’s well-played, well-written and well-recorded. This pretty much covers all of the bases and all that remains is for this to be played at full volume to annoy the neighbours.
The band use crushing rhythmic riffs well and mainly sound like a combination of the dynamics and technicality of Cryptopsy, the staccato brutality of Beneath the Massacre and the sheer violence and cold assault of Coprocephalic. Add some snippets of cut-short melody here and there and brief ambient synth interludes between tracks and you have a very compelling 30 minutes.
Highly recommended.
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