Technical death metal – Page 41

Banisher – Scarcity (Review)

Banisher are from Poland and play Death Metal with a good deal of variety and interest.

This is Progressive/Technical/Experimental Death Metal.

I have enjoyed their previous full length, (Slaughterhouse), and was looking forward to hearing what the band have got up to on this, their second album.

They don’t disappoint. Death Metal played fast and hard but with some nice experimentation and technical flourishes thrown in for good measure. The band can certainly play and they know their way around the instruments. Crucially though they can also do simplicity very well and sometimes the riffs just crush!

The band may be heavy and brutal but they also incorporate some melody and atmosphere into the songs to keep things interesting. There are plenty of these moments scattered around the songs and mean that Banisher have a good amount of variety and longevity baked into these tracks.

A strong, clear sound means you can hear everything that the instruments are doing, (even the bass), and allows you to fully appreciate the various things that the band are putting into their songs.

This is catchy, extreme, brutal, technical, atmospheric and engaging in all of the right places. A lot of other death metal bands sound one-dimensional in comparison to this.

And the Benny Hill cover at the end of the album? Pure genius.

Pyrrhon – The Mother Of Virtues (Review)

Pyrrhon are an unusual Hardcore-influenced Technical Death Metal band from the US and this is their second album.

They kickstart proceedings with an entry track that would do Converge or Cephalic Carnage proud. The Oracle of Nassau explodes out of the speakers all frenzy and bile, and for 1:25 it proceeds to annihilate everything. In complete contrast the next song White Flag starts off slow and menacing, and lasts for a much longer 9:42.

The vocals are screamed static attacks or brutal guttural growls, depending on the mood of the singer.

The music is technical, involved and very intricate. The instruments twist and turn and play all manner of elusive riffs; the listener is submerged in a lake of discordant dissonance that somehow manages to satisfy in spite of the multiple disparate elements being unleashed.

This is the clever thing though, as each instrument by itself is exploring its own path but everything gels together for the benefit of the wider picture in ways that you wouldn’t expect. The songs manage to be exploratory and experimental while remaining coherent and delivering a completed whole.

Angular riffs, wilful bass, schizophrenic drums and daemonic vocals collide to create a challenging and ultimately involving listen. The songs owe about as much to the violent Hardcore background of bands such as Converge, Botch and The Dillinger Escape Plan as they do to Technical Death Metal.

Pyrrhon strike me as having a combination of sounds from bands as diverse as all of the previously mentioned ones, as well as having elements of bands like Uphill Battle, Gorguts and Today Is The Day.

If you’re looking for a new band to obsess over who are not your average band then say hello to Pyrrhon. This album is a must.

Alterbeast – Immortal (Review)

Alterbeast are from the US and on this their début album they treat us to a Technical Death Metal showcase.

Immortal is 8 tracks in just under 30 minutes of a band showing that they can not only play insanely well but that they can craft enjoyable Metal while they do it.

It shreds, rips, blasts and batters in all the right ways and at the end of it you’re left wondering what the Hell just happened. And where did your teeth go?

Their sheer wanton love of Brutal Death Metal and technical proficiency combines effortlessly to produce one hell of an album. Alterbeast manage to straddle both brutality and technicality at the same time so that one doesn’t overpower the other. This effortless sewing together of the two sub-genres of Death metal means that Immortal is a very complete album with both songs and fretboard domination. They can also be surprisingly melodic whent hey want to be, further emphasizing their advanced songwriting skills.

The singer has an amazing voice whether he is growling deeply or screaming his lungs out; either way he stays on top of the melodically-chaotic mayhem and demonstrates a gleeful attitude to his attack.

The sound of the album is just immense; all of the instruments are crystal clear and the guitars have a great heaviness to them that translates into molten gold when the solos and leads appear. As for the drummer he is technically precise without sounding sterile and forms a real backdrop to the carnage that the guitars wreak and the aggression spewed by the singer.

I won’t hide my love for this kind of ultra-modern, ultra-slick Death Metal. This is essential.

Chaos Plague – Chaos Plague (Review)

Chaos Plague are from Italy and this is their first EP of Progressive Death Metal.

The music is technical as you would imagine, with interesting riffs and arrangements for each of the three songs on this EP.

This is a combination of Death Metal and Progressive Metal which means we get the Death Metal parts with angular riffing, but we also get more relaxed and calmer moments with clean vocals. These clear vocals are competent enough but for me the growling steals the show as these deeper grunts sound like monolithic stone slabs dragging against each other.

Apart from the angular fretwork the drums are exercises in precision and the bass is much more audible than the norm.

The 17 minutes of Metal on this EP hits the spot and hopefully they can develop their style even further for their next release. Very promising indeed.

Cognizance – Inquisition (Review)

This the début EP by UK Modern Technical Death Metallers Cognizance, featuring names and guests from other bands aplenty.

This release contains 13 minutes of Grade-A Death Metal which is brutal enough to get the attention but has enough melodic embellishments and leads to keep it.

The songs have a modern feel and style, but not overly so, and each track is full of technical flourishes and tasty moments that make you go “ooooo”.

Oh and the vocalist is great. That’s all I need to say about that really.

Each of the tracks on this EP is a streamlined killing machine and if you’re interested in a short EP full to the brim of expertly played and executed Death Metal then look no further than Cognizance. Let’s hope they do a full album at some point as this has firmly grabbed my attention.

Have a listen. Then listen again.

“ooooo”.

Brood of Hatred – Skinless Agony (Review)

Brood of Hatred are a Death Metal band from Tunisia.

Skinless Agony starts off creeping and crawling with thunderously deep vocals erupting all over the place. Brood of Hatred have some unconventional riffs in their sound and it’s much to their credit.

The production is flawless; no problems here. Every song is given the room to move that it requires, and the instruments couldn’t be clearer, (yes, even the bass is audible).

This is intelligent, atypical Death Metal with a proclivity for interesting and inventive guitar parts. If you think of bands such as Gorguts and Ulcerate, you’ll get the idea of the creative area Brood of Hatred inhabit.

Highly accomplished; the band have created songs with depth and individuality. The playing by all of the musicians involved is exemplary and the brutality of the singer’s guttural vocals anchors the album firmly in Death Metal territory even when the instruments are off exploring other areas.

For me this has been a wonderful discovery of an excellent band – make sure you discover them too.

Mephistopheles – Sounds Of The End (Review)

The first thing I have to note is how great the album cover is. Brilliant stuff.

Mephistopheles are Australian and play Technical Death Metal with interesting riffs and personality.

The instruments are clear and what they play is not your average Death Metal. Lots of ideas and playful experimentation with the genre norms are apparent in the riffs and patterns they use.

Sounds Of The End is very exploratory and guitar-based, with the guitarists seemingly searching for that perfect riff yet always being dissatisfied with what they find so they almost immediately change tack and go hunting for it elsewhere. Meanwhile the drums, bass, (yes it’s audible), and vocals rush to keep up, only by the time they’ve got there the guitars have already moved on two or three times to pastures new.

The guitars seem to jump from one place to another sometimes, always on a quest to find the next, more unusual riff or melody. A full album of this could sound messy, but they also know when to lock into a melody when the song necessitates.

The vocals are varied, going from grunts to shrieks in the space of a few seconds sometimes; matching the eclectic and diverse music. Unexpectedly for this kind of Metal we also get some spoken word and even the odd clean passage, just to keep us on our toes.

This is an elaborate and complex album that doesn’t sound like your typical Technical Death Metal band. It may be of that genre but it has more originality than most and largely succeeds in going its own way. A daunting but rewarding listen.

Wormed – Exodromos (Review)

Wormed are from Spain and play science/future-themed Brutal/Technical Death Metal.

Tight, muscular songs fly by in a haze of technical wizardry with so much going on it’s hardly possible to digest everything in one sitting. The album positively demands repeated listens, and rightfully deserves them too.

This level of extremity is extremely impressive. Especially so when wrapped up in a state-of-the-art, crystal-clear production that makes the most out of every instrument with a sound so sharp you could cut yourself on it.

It’s not all about the technicality though, there’s a massive injection of pure brutality to go along with it. Wormed have managed to pitch both types of Death Metal against each other and come out a winner on both sides.

The songs are generally relatively short with most of them being about the 3:00-3:30 mark, but there is a lot going on and the band don’t need longer to make their mark.

The maniacal drumming, guttural pig-noise vocals, breakneck inventive riffing and massive chugging atrocities all combine to create an experience not easily forgotten. Like a thunderclap given form and mangled into an intricate design that rushes towards you at the speed of sound; you’ll wonder what the hell just happened but be more than eager to repeat the experience. This is an album I’ll be joyfully assimilating for some time.

Gigan – Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery And Super Science (Review)

So you fancy some futuristic Progressive Technical Death Metal do you? Well look no further than US band Gigan as they have what you’re looking for!

This is no easy listening though; it requires repeated spins to truly absorb what is going on here. And even then there is still more to discover.

This may be touted as Technical Death Metal, and it is as far as descriptors go; but it’s not your average Tech Death that’s for sure.

Riffs wash over you like a sea of cosmic rays and thousands of quantum fluctuations assault your senses in forbidden mathematical equations. In a way the cover is all you need to know about this release as it captures the essence of the album very well, if not the raw visceral chaos of the songs themselves.

The tracks are lengthy and involved, and the production is dense and gritty; the nuances are plentiful and easy to overlook on first listen. There is simply so much content in every minute that it can be hard to know which part to focus on. Never let it be said that Gigan aren’t giving enough.

This is interesting and innovative in the way that only ground-breakers and rule-smashers can be. On a bumpy, mind-numbing journey through outer space, I can’t think of any better guide than Gigan.

Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery And Super Science can be befuddling and unapproachable; but those who persevere will be rewarded. Great stuff.

Defeated Sanity – Passages Into Deformity (Review)

Germany’s Defeated Sanity serve up their fourth full-length platter of Brutal Technical Death Metal with Passages Into Deformity.

This is a case study in brutality from the get-go. First track Initiation – from the title and the fact it’s only 1:15 long I was led to assume it would be some typically disposable intro that so many bands have, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It is, essentially, a Deathgrind song and it’s a great way to start things off.

Defeated Sanity play the technical and brutal sides of Death Metal very well, and I especially enjoy the Cryptopsy-esque drum/bass moments, fancy breaks and general riff-chuggery. The Jazz-Death is strong with this one.

The vocalist does a great job gargling with broken glass, and I hope he’s recovered from the blood loss of creating such guttural sounds.

They have a good clear production that allows you to actually hear the bass, (which they make ample use of), and the drumming is an exercise in flawless precision. The two instruments work together to form an integral and essential part of the songs and are every bit as important as the thickened guitars and the bestial grunts.

A top-quality release from a band who have enough experience and know-how to excel at what they’re doing.