Capital Phase of Karma

For several reasons, I always saw technical death metal as one of the hardest genres to choose for a band, not only because its average skill level is fairly high if compared to most of the other kinds of metal, but also because, to my ears, most of it sounds somewhat interchangeable, and standing out of the crowd requires remarkable originality. Whereas several subgenres have room for different leagues of musicianship, and often allow less flashy acts to make up with their straightforwardness or atmosphere (traditional death itself included, just think of Bolt Thrower or the entire OSDM scene), the tech niche simply didn't expand that much during its 15-something years of life. It's pretty much 'conform or die' more often than not.

One of the latest entries trying its own personal twist to this well-established formula is Colombian act Altars of Rebellion, which are anything but newcomers given that they've actually been around for the last two decades, yet they reached their 3rd effort only last summer, most notably returning after a massive 10 years gap since the predecessor The Dominant Material Origin. Changes are definitely to be expected, but while we aren't exactly talking about two different bands, the sophomore was more oriented towards a melodic death/black style, and now they're a full-fledged tech death act. This shift in sound brings also that sterile sound I loathe... especially when taking into account that some tracks feature drums by none less than Marco Pitruzzella (no introduction needed, right?).

Anyways, Capital Phase of Karma. Now, a concept album about the seven deadly sins isn't terribly innovative, the lyrics aren't the easiest to decipher, and even the videos uploaded by the band somehow don't seem to reflect the exact words(!). Let's just trust that they were at least as elaborated as the music itself. Which is... hmm.

In hindsight, we can have the first alarm bell right at the intro: after two minutes of symphonics, the bass slowly makes way for the rest of the band, yet it doesn't exactly lead into the first proper track, ending rather abruptly. I reckon that it's somewhat of a common problem nowadays (unfortunately), but it didn't look like the ideal first step to detach themselves from the masses. The subsequent 'Wrath: The Loss of the Sense' sounds alright, but already provides enough material to exemplify the whole album's problems. I've never made a secret that I like my metal fast: as much as I can't understand most tech death, and as stupid as I find certain bands (*cough*Archspire*cough*), I usually find stuff like Nile or Origin reliable for a good dose of ultra-fast, blast-happy extreme metal for a while. I also usually forget it after I stop playing, but the experience is enjoyable nonetheless. So it would seem I'm bound to see any groove part as disappointing, by default...

...but actually, I'm much more forgiving towards that. What I find harder to digest, however, is when the band apparently can't stay at the same tempo for a full minute, and Capital Phase of Karma is particularly guilty of interspersing all those little groove sections between the blast parts (or vice versa), fragmenting every song. They inevitably tend to make me wait only for the fast segments, and think about something else in the meantime – which can sometimes feel like an eternity. The most notable example is probably 'Avarice: Flesh Made Greed', which somewhere around the middle stops at a symphonic break, pretty much the ideal prelude to a storm; indeed, it then delivers a devastating, almost blackened death blast-beat section, tremolos, growls and stuff, and when you're just ready to headbang at the next measure, every idea of momentum is killed off by a pointless bass/spoken interlude. I get that this sort of, let's say, 'nonlinear' song structures can be a staple of the genre, but stuff like this is a big part of why I find it frustrating, and Altars of Rebellion is only the latest entry in a long list of bands that failed to change my mind.

On the upside, the symphonics carry on throughout the course of the whole album, and are usually a plus, since they're not bombastic as later Fleshgod Apocalypse or Dimmu Borgir and feel way more natural and subdued. The whole experience can be summed up as a slightly more restrained Oracles-era FA meets Biomechanical at their craziest (with a shout-out to gasmask_colostomy for this last comparison). Reinforcing the parallel with the Italian crew are the clean vocals by the bassist Belitio (competent, but a bit overdramatic and also too timid in volume), although used rather sparingly. The majority of the vocals are handled by frontman Fernando Khristos, and he does an admiring effort of alternating between styles as much as possible, sort of a less grating, but equally scream-happy Trevor Strnad, with a Peter (Vader)-like inflection on the growls which is very welcome as it deviates from the usual ultra-deep, cavernous vocals of similar bands.

In any case, I wouldn't say that there are songs I'd listen to repeatedly in their entirety (it won't certainly be a surprising statement by now) but 'Arrogance: Intuitive' is head and shoulders the best of the pack, even if the 'replay value' moment comes only after its half, with a surprising bridge – the only instance where the clean vocals take a front place and go beyond the simple vocalisms that permeate most of the album – which transitions into an amazing (dare I say, even beautiful) solo and ending. Granted, judging songs by virtue of their [length of good parts]:[total running time] ratio isn't really artistic, but whatever, winning on points worked for boxe, we can make an exception. The closer 'Sloth: The Mother of All Vices' is notable as well, in the sense that it tries to inject some semblance of solemn-like atmosphere with the repeated chants in the background, despite its main lead sequence that doesn't feel totally right and its anti-climactic finale. Otherwise, tracks like 'Lust: Low Spheres' completely fall flat, a mid-tempo with guitars and drums taking the backseat, and conversely more prominent symphonics, in which I would have imagined a more relevant clean voice presence, especially since there aren't many sound tracks burying it in the mix, yet those uninspiring 'ooh' choirs disseminated throughout the song do almost nothing on their part. Also, it's still constantly fragmented, in spite of its almost zero tempo changes. Even the choice of two different drummers constantly alternating can disorient the listener, especially when one of the contenders is Lord Marco inevitably ascending to unreal bpms until finally reaching Mach something in 'Gluttony: Thirst for Your Throne'.

Ultimately, like many bands of the same ilk, and despite actually trying something different, Altars of Rebellion often fall victims of the same ol' pitfalls. As said, the symphonic parts are usually a plus as they're embedded with gusto and mixed at an adequate volume, but if you take them, along with the occasional clean vocals, out of the equation, it isn't terribly different from the clichés usually associated with your average run-of-the-mill tech death output, that ended up making it a pretty uninteresting genre at my ears. I've heard way better riffs played by Spawn of Possession, or Hour of Penance, and I wouldn't say I even 'like' any of them. On Capital Phase of Karma you'll find your ration of technical prowess, disarming tempo changes and unconventional signatures, and the always impressive drumming of Lord Marco (but let's not forget the still strong, and undoubtedly more human, performance of other guest Mauro Mazuera), but in 2021 all of that is hardly a novelty for your ears, and if you're a fan, you'll probably be able to name other bands who came before and were better. Some fun while it's on, but I'm having a real hard time seeing myself coming back to it.

Call me silly, but I like a nice neat concept album sometimes. When I call Capital Phase of Karma "neat", I'm of course referring to the manner in which they have shoehorned the 7 sins into an 8 song album via the nifty trick of making the opener an explanatory introduction named 'Overture: Of Sins'. However, I don't really have much idea what connects the album title to the thematic content, so my appreciation of the concept can't go much beyond the titles, all of which are made of dual parts sin and example. Hopefully it will still say this when you read my review (hello, dear misguided reader), but this website currently states that the main lyrical themes that Altars Of Rebellion put into their compositions are separated between biomech and existentialism, a pairing that will certainly surprise until you hear what the actual music sounds like.

The easiest way to encapsulate the sonic germ of this Colombian trio is to imagine that a tech death group have just been handed the tabs to an album written by a symphonic black metal band. I don't believe I've ever written that sentence before, and that's in part because not many bands would choose to go the way of Altars Of Rebellion, so kudos to them for their bravery. Undoubtedly, that brings a spark of interest into their third album right away, but also constructs a few obstacles, namely that those styles are considered not to mix well, and also that you would be foolish to try mixing them without your own drummer (even if some extremely high profile guests may cancel out rumours of a drum machine). I suppose these guys lend some support to the phenomenon that the famous "Will It Blend?" series first introduced to the world, whereby materials that you firstly thought too rigid and impermeable to be broken down occasionally melted away with ease when hit with the blender's blades. For the most part, the jolting rhythm patterns and orchestral synths prove suitable bedfellows, while a thick yet ultimately smooth guitar tone assists in movement between staccato and free-flowing passages. Rather a lot of choral backing distracts somewhat, while also adding the vaguely religious atmosphere that any 7 sins concept demands; the predominant harsh vocals, on the other hand, are fairly inoffensive raspy roars that produce audible lyrics.

Of course, what I'm leaving out of that basic outline is that Altars Of Rebellion put an awful lot into their music. That leaves the entire spectrum densely covered, from the sprawl of the crazily busy drumkit and very full bass tone to the ever-changing guitar, frequent vocals, and overwhelming orchestrations. 38 minutes isn't too much of an endurance test, certainly not with regular changes in direction and sparser moments of slow breakdown or symphonic interlude, but this fullness of sound leaves features slightly indistinct from song to song and moreover forms the principle argument for why I have trouble remembering the songs. You see, the proliferation of rhythmic parts and annoying use of overwhelming blastbeats prevents any catchy aspects of the riffing standing out, not to mention deadening the orchestrations as the elevated atmosphere gets soaked up in a percussive dustball. To be honest, I can still pick out interesting parts - the great melodic solo in 'Arrogance: Intuitive'; the gothic blast frenzy that 'Gluttony: Thirst for Your Throne' begins as; the sudden nightsky sprawl in the middle of 'Wrath: The Loss of the Sense'; the sizzling guitar licks flung around during 'Envy: The Source Particle' - but I can't actually remember them once the album has finished. To give some perspective, I can't even say whether the songs have repeating parts or linear structure, because I can barely follow the music even for 5 minutes at a time.

That puts me in a conundrum that I've occupied before: Capital Phase of Karma seems a well-made and novel album, yet I don't have much good to say about the songs. I suppose Altars Of Rebellion would most commonly be compared to Fleshgod Apocalypse or Septicflesh, which is one reason this doesn't work well for me (I don't especially gravitate towards that style), though I also want to mention the Biomechanical problem. Biomechanical started off as a pretty good thrash/groovy (...death/prog) outfit and then fell foul of ambition by putting too much into every song despite - or perhaps because of - the enormous skill of the musicians involved. Now, I can see that the 3 chaps in Altars Of Rebellion are about at the level of the Biomechanical musicians and as such I can point to a couple of truly impressive moments, yet they also abuse the chaotic songwriting principle a bit less, allowing a little breathing room and some isolated ideas at moments. However, on the whole, that means Capital Phase of Karma feels like it's being complicated just for the sake of it, sort of like biomech with an existential crisis.