Desktop Metal

This is what I would like to see out of progressive metal. Technically and musically proficient musicians using their skills to create extremely radio unfriendly songs that take your mind on a rockin' journey through time and space, all within the span of a single song. Despite the expectations I had looking at the what I was assuming was gonna be self depreciative album title, the production on the album is very professional sounding. Maybe too clean for some, but I didn't really care.

The content of this album is a mix of these thrash metal songs that are mostly fast paced and which shift between a lot of varied motifs per song. The guitar playing isn't wank in spite of it's dexterity because the riffs are still catchy and have the occasional hook. Atmospherically, these songs are so heavy and intense and do so good at encompassing your mind in them that they feel longer than they actually are. To sum it up, they sound like badass video game boss themes.

The other pieces of the album are these very short intermissions consisting of electronic, acoustic, and sampled audio sections. The samples and track titles give the album a kind of theme about computers and the internet and our relation to them. Some particularly standout parts include the first track, "Millennial", which is a sound collage of various sound effects that you've almost certainly heard if you grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s which are presented in a way that are guaranteed to induce nostalgia. The album also ends with one of these non-metal songs: a short minute long piano composition that's kinda simple but featuring these almost tear jerking chords which makes for an interesting juxtaposition when placed after the climatic sounding 8 minute thrash song that came before it.

I totally recommend this album if you wanna listen to some modern prog that isn't totally up it's own ass. It just blows The Dillinger Escape Plan or any shitty mathcore band outta the water.