Gorguts - Colored Sands

Twelve years is a long time.

After the release of From Wisdom To Hate, Gorguts went silent. We saw new bands rise up and push the boundaries of the extreme metal umbrella. Gigan with The Order Of The False Eye, Ulcerate with Everything Is Fire, Deathspell Omega with Fas, Flourishing, Crowpath, Mitochondrion, and more have all experimented and taken extreme metal beyond the archetype much like Obscura did back in 1998. The forward-thinking metal movement doesn't have an end goal in mind. To quote Ulcerate, "the axiom of being is infinite."

Gorguts have returned with one of the most exhaustive, powerful listens of 2013: Colored Sands, a thematically singular slab of death metal that oozes Himalayan beauty.

Merging melody and dissonance is hardly an easy task yet Luc Lemay and co. have done it seamlessly here. Riffs roar into life, meander, and rediscover their original purpose but with no detriments. Many of these riffs are vibrant, colorful in texture and with plenty of compositional decoration. Like an ode to the convoluted nature of life, Colored Sands is wonderfully complex. Time signatures blur together, effects trail off the end of tracks ("Forgotten Arrows"), and some of the most mindbending solo guitarwork I've heard in recent years ("Enemies Of Compassion") all culminate in this release being one of the best this year has to offer.

Everything on Colored Sands has a purpose; everything is intentionally composed in such a way to give meaning to the individual tracks. Like all great albums, it's the little things that make Colored Sands so special and separate it from the rest of Gorguts' discography. As preview track "Forgotten Arrows" begins blasting itself into oblivion, it pulls itself from the brink stronger and more massive than ever with a bunch of bass hits to the face. "The Battle Of Chamdo" is an exercise in Luc's classical training with a real orchestra and unlike most 'orchestral' sounds, it fits the theme and feel of the album. The soft orchestral moments blur over into the explosive intro of "Enemies Of Compassion," my favorite track on the album. The main riff bursts and bubbles like superheated magma, and the track explores the sonic scenery a little before returning for an incredibly chaotic solo. The sustained notes that pop up towards its end are magnificent and send chills down my spine every time.

I can't say I wasn't a tiny bit skeptical with Colored Sands, as I tend to be with most things. I liked the crew Luc assembled for this album, although each members' individual acts are a bit removed from the Gorguts sound. The preview track from 2011 was alright but left me wondering if the new members' influences would overshadow the Gorguts' feel and luckily I was wrong. Colin Marston, Kevin Hufnagel, and John Longstreth have all proven their versatility before but on Colored Sands you can hear them adapting perfectly to a different sound. Speaking of outside influence, the angular "Absconders" is an interesting track in that it distinctly sounds like something Deathspell Omega would write with Ulcerate-esque effects and linearity. Even the name sounds very Deathspell Omega-ish. I like it, and to me it's like Gorguts' giving the nod to all the bands which are similar in musical ideology.

Now comes that obligatory time in which I mention the production and mixing - it's borderline perfect perhaps minus the bass drums' sound which sounds a bit too tinny but at the higher speeds it keeps the mix from being muddy. I'm sure a select few will undoubtedly complain how Colored Sands is heavy and complex without the "darkness" they associate with death metal, as most of the composition is very odd or melodious.

They've missed the point completely.

9.25 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Le Toit du Monde
2. An Ocean Of Wisdom
3. Forgotten Arrows
4. Colored Sands
5. The Battle Of Chamdo
6. Enemies Of Compassion
7. Ember's Voice
8. Absconders
9. Reduced To Silence

Bandcamp (I assume it'll be available on release - it's currently streaming on Spotify)

Here's a cool interview about the concept of the album.

Wormed - Exodromos

I've been meaning to complete all these half-finished reviews I've had sitting around since...forever. The problem is I never get around to it, and then I get sidetracked with life's many nuisances. Having a smidgen of free time over the next few days should allow me to finish a few of these drafts and hopefully cover newer material as well.

But we'll see.

Wormed's Planisphærium remains a powerhouse of brutal slam; its technicality nearly unmatched and its uniqueness equally as elusive in the subgenre. The production value of Planisphærium was apt for the style. The scooped mids and loose, loud snare tone all contributed to making the album memorable, even if it was the brilliantly executed guitarwork that really delivered the 'technical cyber space slam' vibe that Wormed became known for. Exodromos' mix differs in that the mids aren't scooped, and the low-end is completely brought up. The bass range is limited to higher frequencies and there's really not much variation on the bottom end. It's a disappointing release on that front, and as soon as I got over that I was able to enjoy the album for what it was, kind of.

Still not as good as Planisphærium.

Pulsating and occasionally brilliant riffs radiate from Exodromos' sub-supermassive core. Wormed like to play with their listeners; they shift and blur riffs as to make predicting their next move impossible. Highlight track "Tautochrone" is a good example of this. About a minute in and the heavier, chugging riff shifts into a blastbeat segment before the main melody of the track breaks through right into another thick, chunky riff. I can appreciate the songwriting decision, and it makes the more direct tracks stand out like pulsars amidst the cosmic void. "Stellar Depopulation" is one of the more straightforward tracks and features a short-lived slam that decays into stop-start blasting and a chromatic melody that eventually evolves into something more beautiful.

Much of the previous standout riffing comes together during the album closer "Xenoverse Discharger." This track brings the best elements that you heard earlier into a singular(ity) fold. It makes for an atmospheric end, and is easily one of the best tracks on Exodromos. Speaking of atmosphere, the random spoken word ambient tracks are boring as all hell. "Solar Neutrinos" totally kills the momentum of the album for me.

Maybe I miss the standout slams of Planisphærium a bit too much or maybe it's just the production, but either way I find Exodromos to be a second-tier release. It's certainly not bad by any means, but after listening to "Xenoverse Discharger" you realize that the majority of the albums' best moments can be summed up in just six minutes.

7.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Nucleon
2. The Nonlocality Trilemma
3. Tautochrone
4. Solar Neutrinos
5. Multivectorial Reionization
6. Spacetime Ekleipsis Vorticity
7. Darkflow Quadrivium
8. Stellar Depopulation
9. Techkinox Wormhole
10. Xenoverse Discharger

Bandcamp

Suffocation - Pinnacle Of Bedlam

It's Suffocation. We know exactly what we're getting from them since the band hasn't strayed from the brutal/technical death metal formula since their inception. However it's the little things that always tend to irk the longtime fans. After seeing the cover art for Pinnacle Of Bedlam, many people decried Suffocation as falling into the generic, computerized brutal death metal rut that similar acts like California's Deeds Of Flesh have in the past. Though it's not like elements of that sound haven't existed on Suffocation's past releases, here Raymond Swanland's concept art only made that fear seem much more real. Not to mention the abysmal title font...

Pinnacle Of Bedlam is a mixed bag. While the fears based on the album art were brushed aside shortly after people began listening to the album, Pinnacle Of Bedlam is far from perfect. There's chromatic rhythms, melodic solos, and the rare d-beat hidden amongst the more pervasive blasting ferocity. In essence, Pinnacle Of Bedlam is pretty archetypal post-Despise The Sun Suffocation material. Teasers "Cycles Of Suffering" and "As Grace Descends" were nice blows for the naysayers and the morons who claimed that "Suffocation has gone deathcore."

The problem isn't in the predictable songwriting though. That's by far the best aspect of Pinnacle Of Bedlam, despite Suffocation not being as focused on the 'brutal' element as they were in the past. Frank's vocals have become more subdued with age and Terrence's riffing style has gravitated towards melodious technical death metal. This comes as common knowledge for myself since I've given their recent output a listen, but I know some brutal death metal aficionados complained about the lack of 'brutal' elements on the last few albums. I just wondered why they were expecting such in the first place. The clean guitar moments on "Sullen Days" did still manage to surprise me though, and I can't tell whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I may have made a mistake myself in hoping that a Suffocation album would have solid production values for once. The focal point moving away from 'brutal' death metal isn't wholly to blame either. They've always had issues - Breeding The Spawn, their self-titled, Blood Oath, and now Pinnacle. I can overlook a bad production on a personal level as I did with their previous releases, and usually in the end I find elements I like about the album. However this is a review and no matter how much I try to sugarcoat it, the production is still shitty. The drums click like the sound of a mechanical keyboard and the guitars are all treble. At least they have gain and their tones make them distinctly audible while casual listening even if the mix is muddy. Overall it sounds ugly and unappealing though - not something I want to hear out of any album let alone a Suffocation one. Ironically fitting, this album features a rerecorded track from the aforementioned Breeding The Spawn too.

Essentially Pinnacle Of Bedlam looks and sounds like a typical Nuclear Blast release with an undercurrent of Suffocation greatness to it. While the songwriting is standard fare, the production and presentation is subpar. A predictable shame.

6.0 out of 10

Tracklisting:
1. Cycles of Suffering
2. Purgatorial Punishment
3. Eminent Wrath
4. As Grace Descends
5. Sullen Days
6. Pinnacle of Bedlam
7. My Demise
8. Inversion
9. Rapture of Revocation

Listen // Buy

Lecherous Nocturne - Behold Almighty Doctrine

Sure to incite statements of "riff-salad," South Carolina's Lecherous Nocturne's newest album is as schizophrenic as you would expect. A whirlwind of chaotic riffing, drumming, and midrange vocals, Behold Almighty Doctrine is a tough record to bite, and not for these reasons. If this kind of music daunted me I wouldn't make the claim that technical death metal was my favorite subgenre.

Behold Almighty Doctrine is populated by shorter length tracks that would probably benefit from a bit of grindcore aggression. One thing I noticed is that while many different riffs are cycled in and spammed at the listener, few of them stick. The vocal and rhythms on "Bring The Void," the slowed down mid-section and ending of (album favorite) "Archeopteryx," and the fills on "Lesions From Vicious Plague" are the closest you'll ever get for memorability. Other tracks while chaotic are lacking in aggressive energy where even something as simple as a d-beat could give the listener a reason to get into the music. The dry guitar tone and heavily palm-muted chromatic riffing is partly to blame, but there seems to be an overall lack of harmony here. I'm sure the bass audibly imitating the melody for the majority of tracks doesn't help either.

And those cheesy synth and piano parts need to go. Including the useless "Intro" and "Outro."

Instead Behold Almighty Doctrine falls into the same rut that bands like Hate Eternal do. The music lacks any sort of memorability, and not in the form of shitty half-baked hooks or repeated chorus song structuring. The number of riffs that are crammed into each track isn't enormous compared to some other bands in the subgenre, but when so little of them are quality it's hard to call it "songwriting" so much as just jamming out some pseudo-technical bullshit.

5.5 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1. Intro
2. Ouroboros Chains
3. Bring The Void
4. Archeopteryx
5. Those Having Been Hidden Away
6. Prelude #2
7. Judgments And Curses
8. Lesions From Vicious Plague
9. Caustic Vertigo
10. Creation Continuum
11. Outro

Bandcamp

Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

Oh wait it's the 2nd already? Damn it's my birthday so I guess I'll review one of my favorites this year.

The Destroyers Of All sent seismic waves through the technical death scene with its release early this January. I had this shit preordered when it was announced, and it's no wonder that it is one of my favorites this year. However I feel like my love for Everything Is Fire is so great that I compared The Destroyers Of All to it a bit much.

A worthy sequel to what in my opinion is the epitome of the technical death metal genre, Ulcerate have become a bit more subtle with their technicality and focused more on creating subtle atmosphere. This atmosphere bears none of the crushing, gravitic similarities to Everything Is Fire, and is instead more focused on the spacier aspects that Everything Is Fire explored in moderation.

And this atmosphere works wonders. Although subtle, it allows Ulcerate's numerous technical nuances to shine through the music clearly. Everything from ghost notes and looped (layered) riffs to those glorious tremolo picking crescendos that Ulcerate is notorious for is present on The Destroyers Of All. Rhythmically speaking, the album is brilliant - although a bit less so than it's predecessor which emphasized a bit more improvisation. Here you have drummer and songwriter Jamie St. Merat playing some very technical, very jazz influenced beats, with Paul Kelland's organic basslines setting the backdrop for the sound of the apocalypse. There's also the appropriate amount of time signature changes that keep the music feeling fresh, with a degree of unpredictability. Something I noticed (and it's somewhat of a minor complaint), is that the production isn't nearly as strong on this album. The bass doesn't crush your skull and the drumming doesn't whirl you into the black hole of unpredictability that it did on Everything Is Fire. This is (almost guaranteed) to be because the band got a professional production job done as opposed to Jamie doing his own.

Angular and dissonant, Hoggard's no slouch on guitar either. Tons of jazzy, emotionally resonant chords create dizzying, alien soundscapes. With all those time signature changes comes some brilliant melodies that will have you humming along for weeks. I swear I had "The Hollow Idols" stuck in my head forever. "Burning Skies" and "Cold Becoming" were there too at other points. The best part about songs like this is that they all build to some sort of apex. In interviews the band has strongly emphasized linear songwriting, and on The Destroyers Of All it's easiest to hear it in practice. There are no stale riffs. No boring rhythms. There are droning sections, but it's all done in the name of a unifying atmosphere just the way it should be. There are some slower songs though, and both "Omens" and "Beneath" are quality tracks, although the former is probably the least Ulcerate-esque on the album.

Lyrically the album deals with the themes of the human condition, with a degree of nihilism thrown in. As opposed to the all-truth and absolution of Everything Is Fire (the idea that truth itself is an ever-changing and illusive ideal that doesn't really exist), this album applies this directly to humanity. This in some ways makes it resonate better. For example the apex of "The Destroyers Of All" is one of the most emotionally resonant pieces of death metal I've ever heard. "Bring me the comfort of cold inertia / Bring me the graves, poised for our leaden demise" - combined with that riff it truly does sound like absolution incarnate.

Although the songwriting is arguably more atmospheric and less intensely technical this time around, Ulcerate still prove to be spearheading the "other" (aka non wank-a-thon) kind of technical death metal. The production is the one thing that really hurts the album, and personally I did prefer the more wall-of-sound approach that Everything Is Fire had, but it's impossible to top perfection.

9.0 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Burning Skies
2.	Dead Oceans
3.	Cold Becoming
4.	Beneath
5.	The Hollow Idols
6.	Omens
7.	The Destroyers of All

Severed Savior - Servile Insurrection

Here's another repost. I'm going crazy today. Three updates in ONE day? That's like a world record!

I'm a technical death metal fiend. I eat this shit up, whether it's from debut artists or from established masters of the subgenre. Severed Savior, just like every other band from California, is so ridiculously predictable by this point that it's going to be tough to even write about their most recent album without retracing what I said in other reviews.

Suffocation used to be the staple for brutal/technical death metal, and it's pretty easy to see their influence throughout Severed Savior's discography. However if you've listened to Severed Savior's aptly-titled Brutality Is The Law, which I quite enjoyed, then you might be disappointed with what you hear on Servile Insurrection. Sweep-picking, brutal riffs, Suffocation-esque vocals, plenty of neocIassical solos, some dissonance, and a few random jazz sections, what's not to like? It's missing some of that essential brutality. This seems to be the trend in most technical death and especially with Californian technical death metal.

That's not to say Servile Insurrection is lacking any quality brutal moments. The intro track "Question" and "Inverted And Inserted" really bring the brutality. There's also an interesting transition about halfway through the album where the listener is treated to a 57 second instrumental track followed by a 50 second acoustic track. It's a welcome break from the fierceness of the previous tracks and sets the mood for the latter half of Servile Insurrection. "Acts Of Sedition" is Severed Savior at their fastest and "Spoils Of War" is Severed Savior at their catchiest. These last few tracks are memorable despite the album having that feel of "been there done that."

I should be giving this a more careful listen, but after quite a few spins I just don't hear what separates Severed Savior from the rest of the Californian tech death scene. Perhaps it's their brutality on the previous release, or perhaps it's the overbearing influence of their music on other artists, but whatever makes Severed Savior special sure as hell didn't make Servile Insurrection stand out in the slightest.

7.25 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	Question
2.	Inverted and Inserted
3.	Rewards of Cruelty
4.	Fuck the Humans
5.	Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis
6.	Intervallo Del Tradimento
7.	Acts of Sedition
8.	Fecalphiliac
9.	Spoils of War
10.	Deadspeak
11.	Servile Insurrection

Vengeful - The Omnipresent Curse

Ironically, with new albums leaking and releasing daily by titans like Origin, Revolting, Blood Freak, Septic Flesh, and even Bon Iver, I'm currently enthralled with an album released back in 2009. Looking back on it, 2009 was probably the best year for music of the '00 decade. Anyway in mid-April I saw Sepultura, Belphegor, Neuraxis, Keep Of Kalessin, and a bunch of other bands. The show was pretty sweet. Neuraxis was a stunning display of technicality, Belphegor was awesome, Sepultura was filled with energy, and Keep Of Kalessin was, well, awful (as expected). Sepultura got the crowd moving so much that even the old-tyme moshers in their mid-forties were getting riled up. The concert is beside the point. I walked away with an album from the merch booth that is slowly becoming one of my favorite death metal albums of the last few years:

Vengeful's The Omnipresent Curse

Apparently the immensely talented bassist from Neuraxis was in the band at one point or another which is why it was at the merch booth. I had downloaded the album before (like with everything I happen to find of remote musical interest on the internet) but had only given it very seldom listens, which is a regret now that I've realized it's greatness. Anyway this album is a solid slab of dark, sinister death metal that'll leave you feeling uneasy at your core.

This album is surprisingly tough to write about. I usually tend to find albums that resonate with me well to be tougher to write about due to the feel and sights I associate with the music. That can lead to some awfully vague descriptions of the music when I start throwing other sensory experiences I associate with the album into the review. So, if I begin talking about weird shit like daemonic portals opening up and swallowing my soul, you know what I'm getting at.

Vengeful's debut, Karma, was a pretty decent release that held a lot of promise for the French-Canadian metallers. In the two years that followed the release of Karma, Vengeful underwent several lineup changes with members from big names in Canadian (tech) metal, such as Neuraxis, Atheretic, and Negativa. They also developed their semi-standard sound in numerous ways to create an ominous, distorted whirlwind of sonic hatred. The Omnipresent Curse was the result of that development, and from the moment "Forsaken" hammers through your skull, it's easy to tell that this album is dark in an Immolation-esque sense. In fact a lot of the songs almost feel like they could've been produced by late '90s-early '00s Immolation. The drumming has a very pounding nature reminiscent of Alex Hernandez's work on Close To A World Below. Etienne Gallo's somewhat free-form tom and cymbal use (ala Ulcerate) on this release is phenomenal and adds a lot to the music, especially on "Anguish" and the 21-minute closing track "Transcending."

LeBlanc's is no slouch on the guitar either. Opener "Forsaken" culminates in a memorable riff littered with harmonics and a brutal low-end. Olivier Pinard's bass talent also stands out as an extremely low, dry roar in the very mid-ranged mix. "Detention" is one of The Omnipresent Curse's highlights. An underlying chug and several dissonant chords later and you're gliding along into the mouth of a colossal black monstrosity as it consumes reality. There's a lot of dissonance scattered throughout Vengeful's sophomore effort, but I've always been particularly fond of songwriters who use the tensions and accidentals to their advantage, especially when it's in a non-traditional sense. "Transcending" is an interesting track in that it's 21-minutes long and manages to still be interesting and cohesive. Few death metal bands can pull that off properly, but leave it to the French-Canadians (known for being awesome; see: Gorguts, Quo Vadis, etc.) to pull it off.

However I wouldn't go as far to say that this is a wholly original work. The overwhelming similarities to early Immolation are there directly in the music. In fact I can't shake the damn image of mid-era Immolation playing these exact riffs and songs. Perhaps not with the acoustics on "Lapsus," but I can hear it in the jazz-influenced drumming, the guitarwork, and the overall feel of the album. Is that a bad thing? Let me ask you this: do you like Immolation? If the answer is yes (which it fucking should be) then you will like The Omnipresent Curse without a doubt. The whole package reeks of dissonant chaotic evil, and what's not to love about that even if it sounds like a solid imitation of one of the greatest death metal bands ever? Vengeful is proof that original work is not a necessity for greatness, but a bit more originality never hurt anyone.

9.25 out of 10

For some reason this album kicks major ass in 5.1. The use of each channel is perfect. Also a third album is being produced now by the band. I'm most certainly excited!

Tracklisting:

1.	Forsaken
2.	Beholder
3.	Anguish
4.	Detention
5.	Lapsus
6.	Nightmare
7.	Sanctioned
8.	Transcending

Arkaik - Reflections Within The Dissonance

Another California technical death metal band? Great. A new one is formed every damn day. Arkaik are pretty much every band that you've heard before, but they execute what has become cliché very well. Reflections Within Dissonance has a bit more aggression than the most recent efforts by Arkaik's peers and is ultimately more interesting because of it.

One way to describe Reflections Within Dissonance is to look at the album art and list what you see. A myriad of colors, skulls, dead trees, and other supernatural phenomena all thrown together in some sort of bizarre collage of destructive sonic force. The album starts with the title track and moves into "Paradigm," blasting the listener with wave after wave of violent sound. "Womb Of Perception" begins with a hyperfast noodling riff and has a nice bassline set to it. After the eerie vocals (or is that a sample?) at the end of "The Divine Manifestation," it breaks into a roaring vocal section that starts the second half of the album. Despite some of the earlier songs running together, I found myself actually headbanging to the latter half of the album. Tracks like "Malignant Ignorance" which begins with a bunch of fills and the bass intro on "Elegy Of The Disillusioned" are a bit more fun than their sheer speed and somewhat wanky counterparts on the first half of the album.

The album concludes with a slower track that obviously must speed up halfway through (after all this is Californian tech death). There's an interesting bit halfway through where the song is reduced to mere drum and vocals with some intermittent chugging going on. Reflections Within Dissonance, unlike other similar albums, doesn't rely entirely on neo-classical solos when it comes to songwriting, which I feel is Arkaik's strongest asset in setting them apart from their peers. After the hundredth hammer-on and sweep picking blast-a-thon I tend to get tired. Although it blends together at times and sounds like just about every other technical death metal album from California, the way Reflections Within Dissonance is executed with such aggression really makes its appeal much more lasting.

7.75 out of 10

Tracklisting:

1.	The Transcendent Spectral Path
2.	Reflections Within Dissonance
3.	Paradigm
4.	Obscured Luminosity
5.	Womb Of Perception
6.	The Divine Manifestation
7.	Malignant Ignorance
8.	Elemental Synthesis
9.	Elegy for the Disillusioned
10.	Face Of Regression