The Lucid Collective

Technical death metal is a genre that almost, by its very appellation, invites criticism. A claim to being “technical” – i.e. difficult to play – lends itself well to the accusation of being the musical equivalent of a weight lifting competition or dog show. Indeed, while I would not necessarily defend the label itself, there are many death metal bands that are referred to as technical death metal that most certainly write ‘technical’ music solely because they are capable instrumentalists – Cannibal Corpse, Nile, and Suffocation being among the foremost examples. On the other side, as is probably more well known to the reader, are objects of mockery by (nearly) all but the sweep-picking obsessed fans of spider-handed fanatics such as Viraemia and Brain Drill.

Catering to perhaps the latter more than the former is Canadian band Archspire, who have made waves amongst this community with their absurdly fast vocalist Oli Peters, talented stringed instrumentalists, and a drummer of seemingly endless stamina, Spencer Prewett. I’ll admit up-front that I initially bought this album solely to listen to Spencer Prewett drum – having seen the band live before, I could not help but focus my attention almost solely on the inhuman capacity of this sticksman to maneuver around the entirety of the kit and maintain sustained beats at fingerbreaking tempos (easily in excess of 300 bpm). The question remained, however, after the purchase of the album – was there any substance behind the sheer ‘athleticism’ of the band?

First of all, mercifully, the album is not merely a show of instrumental prowess, but rewards the listener with a smattering of meaty riffs, harsh breakdowns and the occasional spacey, progressive lead. The lead riff of ‘Scream Feeding,’ for example, illustrates the band’s appetite for more old school death metal, while the entry into the ‘breakdown’ of ‘Seven Crowns and the Oblivion Chain’ could have easily been written by the likes of Dying Fetus or Suffocation. Nearly every song on the album has either the occasional solid riff, or the memorable moment that is worth rewinding the album to listen to again. If there is anything that Archspire is, it’s a band of ‘moments’ – while some of the songs grow tiring as they blaze past you at a thousand miles a minute, they are very good at creating striking passages such as slamming you into the brick wall of a cymbal catch after furious blasts and tremolo picking, or percussively matching vocal patterns to the drums, or transitions between sections that absolutely melt the whirring metal of the band’s musical machinery. The lead song on the album is a particular highlight, demonstrating the capabilities of every member while sustaining the runtime with riffs and drum parts that will stick with you long after initial listening.

These highlights noted, the album nonetheless fails to surpass, for this listener at least, some of the worst tendencies commonplace in technical death metal of this stripe. In the first place, the production on this album is incredibly mechanical. While it does not hamper the album to the degree it did Archspire’s first full-length, it still destroys any organic quality similarly fast-paced records employ. In addition, the novelty of many of the member’s capabilities wear off very quickly, as each instrument is going at maximum tempo for virtually every song on the album – as mentioned earlier, this can make a four minute song feel like an eight minute track, especially during the final hundred-meter sprint of the album where the spacier ‘Kairos Chamber’ acts as a welcome reprieve. While there are undoubtedly vocal cadences throughout the album that are quite memorable, the ‘shock’ of the vocalist’s talents is somewhat hampered by the sheer amount of time he spends growling at the fastest pace possible. The start of ‘Fathom Infinite Depth,’ for example, would have so much more impact if that was the first we heard of Peters growling at this mind-bending speed. In addition, very few of the guitar solos really have any staying power on the album – in part, because they primarily serve the purposes of the sort of ‘athleticism’ that grows tiring in the tech-death genre.

In short, The Lucid Collective is a mixed offering. There are several songs on this album that work as cohesive compositions, but the main attraction of the album probably remains the sheer talents of – most especially – the vocalist and drummer. If you are a listener who favors the brand of metal that seeks to outdo or outplay the Muhammad Suicmez’s and Derek Roddy’s of the world, you are undoubtedly in for a treat. However, the sheer technical abilities of these musicians are not enough to carry the largely mediocre compositions that substantiate a fair deal of this album. Moreover, the production on this album is so polished that any charm of idiosyncrasy (among my favorite aspects of death metal) is completely absent from this release. All in all, the album’s highlights speak of a potential that subsequent releases hopefully prove portentous.


60%

This will be a hard review to write, but not nearly as hard as this album must have been to compose. In order to be able to do the record any justice with mere words, I would need a degree in music theory from Julliard as well as a Nobel Prize for literature - along with a total suspension of disbelief on the behalf of my readership. Readers beware. Not a word that is to follow even comes close to hyperbole!
The Lucid Collective may be the single greatest feat of tech death ever committed to binary code. I urge all of you elitist, old school nostalgia filled, Morbid Angel fellating, IDMNs out there to go all kinds of nuts and bananas in the comments section with your customary knee jerk reaction, troglodyte stream of near consciousness rambling ravings- because not even a collective expression of your most lucid and deeply emotionally seated opinions can change this fact in the slightest.

This album DE-EXPLETIVE INFIX-STROYS! First of all, drummer Spencer Prewett slays his kit like he was the bastard love child of Jon Longstreth and Chris Pennie- raised on a steady diet of amphetamines and daily Iron Man races. His blasts are as varied as the colours of the rainbow, his technique as precise as laser eye surgery and his level of creativity higher than that of the entire city of Umeå, Sweden, during an extended acid binge. All of this performed at speeds that would have Dave Witte throw in his sweat drenched towel and finally realise the dream of starting a grind themed micro brewery.

The dual, god knows how many fucking strings, guitar assault can not be described without resorting to the sort of lingo understood only by those who carry a full set of emergency replacement strings with them at all times and could compose deeply meaningful haikus- using nothing but advanced guitar terminology- at the drop of a plectrum. The vocals are like the rapid fire, growling oral rumbles of Bigfoot undergoing shock treatment of the nads, and fret not bass aficionados, because low end provider Jaron Evil certainly doesn’t.

The greatest miracle with this album, however, is not how in the deepest bloody pits of hell it came to be so expertly wrought and flawlessly performed, but how in the name of the bastard Jesus they were able to assemble such a troop of supremely skilled musicians without resorting to some sort of Canada’s Got All the Talent reality TV show, drawing from a pool of every music conservatory student graduated in the country since the heyday of the tech death era. The godlike riffage swirls like Eve Mendes’ honey scented bathwater down the drain of a solid gold tub and the heavenly melodies stop on a BitCoin, only to snap back in a split second into some silken solos born on the back of warp speed rhythms that change directions faster than a ping pong ball caught inside a high end washing machine set to the spin cycle.

Shortly put, The Lucid Collective constitutes the happiest marriage of unadulterated speed with truly beautiful songwriting ability this writer’s ever heard- both in and outside of his wildest dreams. This rating goes up to 11.

Originally written for Halifax Collect blog.

This sophomore release by Archspire I feel was rated unfairly. For being a technical death metal act, this release to me hits home with a "B" average. It's blindingly fast and furious and hate in the vocals. All the tracks on here I thought were noteworthy as well as super technical on the guitars/drums. The vocals are wicked as well. Not only do you get deep throat there are some screaming going on as well. The music is just furious. Nothing on here is boring or without significance. There are some milder guitar mixed in here but not extensively. It's enough to give the album variety and poise. This being a second album really is quite an achievement.

They seem to never let-up in intensity except for when they totally want to mellow out in the guitar department. For technical death metal, the music is filled with Archspire hate. I like the rhythm guitars better than the leads, though they were well constructed. The rhythm is filled with fret-board fantastic licks. And the opening track you would expect them to have such fury soon after the intro takes place. There just isn't anything on here that is without precedence. They totally rip the hell out of your speakers or earbuds. What baffles me is that people didn't appreciate this enough to give it a higher rating. I cannot see it being less than a "B" rating. It's so surreal and lucid.

I like the whole package, though the production could have been a bit better, but it still does the album justice. These guys are no amateurs. They know how to construct riffs that are so complex and amazing. The music is the best part of the album as well as the intensity. They really know what they're doing and I should say my favorite tracks are the opening "Lucid Collective Somnambulation", "Join Us Beyond", and "Seven Crowns And the Oblivion Chain." Really though, all of them I like, it's just those stood out the most with me. Everything just comes together as this 30+ minutes flies right by you (or at least, for me it did). These guys are highly underrated. You'll hear a supreme genocide on here.

To sum up, Archspire really did a great job of making some extreme music creative with their guitar/drum work. The intensity is high, total headbanger material. They know their music needs to go completely viral. Not too many other technical death metal acts that I know of, but hey, these guys I heard by accident. I was just like "the musicianship is extraordinary here." Check out those songs I mentioned on YouTube or the album is available on Spotify. But do the band justice by buying the physical copy at your local record store or Amazon.com. You will not be disappointed. If you are, then you don't appreciate talent like this!

To start, I know this album gets a lot of heat from critics and traditionalists, but I mean come on, this album is pretty awesome.  At least I think so.  Archspire's "The Lucid Collective" is a huge step up from their debut album, "All Shall Align," and a landmark in technical death metal history, inspiring many different bands.  This stuff is tight, well-written, hyper-fast, and composed to near technical perfection.  Layering sounds and experimenting with extreme tempo changes, Archspire make "The Lucid Collective," maybe not a classic, but a turning point in technical death metal.

This album is full of hammering songs like "Fathom Infinite Depth," "The Plague of Am," and "Lucid Collective Somnambulation."  These tracks are on fire, alternating between clean and distorted guitar and showing similar songwriting techniques as their first album.  The stop-and-go technique is used a lot by tech death bands such as Archspire because they see it as a fit transition between riffs or parts of a song.  I think it works well for Archspire (on this album), although many people do not enjoy it as much.  Despite it being a large part of their first album as well, Archspire actually make this technique work this time around.  It's like Necrophagist and Gorod had a child but dropped the progressive elements off their music.

The riffs on here give old school as well as modern vibes.  The modern riffs are more noticeable, but the old school riffs are hidden by the clean production.  The riffs I speak of are the groovy ones that can be seen in "Fathom Infinite Death" or "Kairos Chamber."  They give Archspire a different outlet other than fast and relentless all the damn time.  That was another problem with "All Shall Align": every song was fast and never slowed down except for a few clean guitar breakdowns.  This album, on the other hand, is able to slow down without taking away from Archspire's original style of "fast and relentless."

So as far as production goes, I mentioned in the part one of this review that Archspire relies on good production to make them sound good.  This is because there are so many things going on in their music like a million notes being played per minute or multi-layered music.  Because it's all so fast, good production is needed in order to actually hear everything, and Archspire have it on this album.

As for the band members, each member does their part perfectly at every second.  The drums are fierce and have perfect precision.  The guitars are the same and so is the bass.  The real reason for this paragraph is the vocalist.  Wow, the vocalist kills it.  In order to keep up with the fast pace of the music, he basically raps everything in a very dry almost Cynic-like growl that really fits the clean sound of the overall compositions.

This album isn't perfect, but it's definitely a great one.  With tons of riffs and killer tracks, Archspire have really outdone themselves on this one.  Their debut album showed potential, and this was the right way to go for them.

Overall Rating: 86%

Originally written for themetalvoid.wordpress.com

I know this review says it's for The Lucid Collective, but it's really just a criticism of the entire band. So, here we go...

When I first listened to Archspire (the song being their title track, Archspire), I had only just started listening to tech-death. My standards were already pretty high at that point, with bands like Beyond Creation, Obscura, and Spawn of Possession being my favorites at the time (well, come to think of it, they still are). I was blown away by the crazy guitar work, the insane double bass and gravity blasting, and the unbelievable basslines. I thought they were the greatest thing ever. Now, as I write this review, I have a different perspective.

If you've heard even one Archspire song, it's no debate that they're talented musicians. I don't think I need to argue that. But where this band drops the ball is in their songwriting. Sweep picking is almost omnipresent when it comes to this band. Sometimes it can be cool, such as in Lucid or Rapid Elemental Dissolve. But Dean Lamb and Tobi Morelli just seem to abuse it. I can hear really cool riffs, such as in their title track Archspire. It's clear that these guys are capable of good songwriting. But then at the end of Archspire, guess what happens? Nothing more than a sweeping solo. So when it comes to guitars: Lamb and Morelli have got some good riffs, and they're great players, but they really need to lay off the sweep picking. I'm hopeful that their next album will be better in this aspect.

The bassist, Jaron Evil - who recently recovered from a stroke, which I'm thankful for - is, once again, a great musician. I think the bass is arguably the best aspect of this band. He's a great addition to the guitars, and kind of compensates for the overuse of sweep picking. Since sweeping is a lot less common on bass than guitar, he sounded a little better than Lamb and Morelli. But the best part of it is that you can hear him. Earlier I mentioned I love Spawn of Possession. My one complaint about that band is that the bass is nearly impossible to hear. Jaron Evil's basslines are clear, they support the guitars well, and they're highly technical, of course!

When it comes to drums, Archspire's Spencer Prewett never rests. He's either in hyper-blast mode or extreme double bass mode, or both. Many of these songs reach over 300 beats per minute. That's fine with me: I can appreciate a fast, aggressive song. But I don't think the full extent of Prewett's talent is shown in most Archspire songs. Going back to their title track Archspire, the part with the acoustic guitar is a great example of Prewett's abilities. Although it's not as subtle as I'd like it to be (for even during that short segment of the song, Prewett makes sure we know how fast his feet are on those pedals), I think it's one of the best parts of the song. In conclusion, the drumming is quite similar to the guitars and bass: Prewett is a great musician, but he's often excessive with the double bass and blast beats, as the guitarists are with their sweep picking.

The vocals (performed by Oli Peters) are unlike any I've ever heard before. He can alternate between the lowest growls to the highest screams, and do it all with insane speed and precision. But - and I know this is starting to sound redundant - Peters goes a little too far. 90% of the time, you're hearing these lyrics barked at you with blinding speed, and this distracts from the instrumental talent that's going on in the background (and yes, I know I criticized the band's instrumentals, but still...) So, for one last time: Peters is an astoundingly good vocalist, but he seems to always be screaming this fact in your face - quite literally.

I think I remember watching an interview of Spencer Prewett in which he said that the focus for Archspire's next album was to be turned towards improved songwriting (or something like that). I sincerely hope that this is true, because - as the title of this review states - this 5-piece from Canada has tons of potential. Although I lambasted them thoroughly for repetitiveness (and sounded a little biased in Jaron Evil's favor - I honestly couldn't think of any criticism for him without really stretching it), this band has its moments - Lucid Collective Somnambulation and Archspire being key examples. With people this talented at the instruments they play, I'm optimistic that this band will step away from just showing off their musical expertise and work towards writing memorable yet technical songs.

I mean it, this album is equatable to porn, and I don't mean it in a good way. I've once heard pornography defined as "anything you lose interest in as soon as you finish masturbating", which is completely brilliant and it embarrasses me to admit that I can't for the life of me remember the source. The point is that Archspire is astounding. I listen to The Lucid Collective and I'm reminded of the first time I heard genre stalwarts like Origin or even bands who flashed in the pan extremely brightly before abandoning the style or just going generally MIA from the studio like Fleshgod Apocalypse and Decrepit Birth. The percussion is monstrous, lightning quick, and precise. The guitars shred at light speed through insanely technical leads and generally unimportant riffs, but they take the Decrepit Birth approach of loading everything down with melody so the riffs are really more of an afterthought anyway. The biggest standout is probably the vocalist, as he rivals Corpsegrinder, Sean Killian, or the dude from Streetlight Manifesto in how insanely fast he delivers his lines. The lyrics for any given song are basically a full chapter from any novel, and he just never lets up with his rhythmic staccato. It's like Busta Rhymes joined Origin, listen to the intro of "Fathom Infinite Depth" and try not to be impressed by his full throatal assault.

And then the album finishes. And that's it! A-thibby thib-thit-thit THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

As soon as "Spontaneous Generation" draws to a close, the album evaporates from your memory like your last wet dream, leaving you only with a curious stain and no memory of why you were so damn excited. For all of the mind-bending skill on display, Archspire is woefully lacking in staying power, with songwriting skill on par with Rings of Saturn or Brain Drill, despite managing to avoid their style of incessantly cramming six second snippets of practice exercises in a random order dozens of times and calling it a song. When listening to The Lucid Collective, it's obvious that they know what they're doing, it's just a shame that they aren't particularly good at it. There was a browser game from a few years ago where you'd create a band, get points every hour or so, and spend those points on improving the band, touring, releasing albums, writing songs, etc. Fun little timekiller and all, and if I recall there was a strong roleplaying community with it, but the point was that there were three factors that influenced the overall rating of the songs you'd write: creativity, playing ability, and songwriting. If Archspire played that game, they'd have creativity sitting at about 75, playing ability at 150, and songwriting at 20.

As instantly ear catching as tracks like "Fathom Infinite Depth" and "Lucid Collective Somnambulation" are, they have no staying power beyond their initial runtime, and it's a shame because in terms of skill the band is right on par with early Fleshgod. Maybe this is just a sign of the declining popularity of Unique Leader and Willowtip styled tech death, or maybe it's just my own waning patience with bands who are loaded with technical skill but lacking in songwriting prowess, but Archspire could have been on top of the world back in 2008, but are struggling to reach an audience in 2015. They have a bit going for them with the rapid fire insanity of the vocalist and some interesting themes (like their ode to "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" in "The Plague of AM"), but unless they can fully utilize the ability to throw in some more hooks, stronger melodies that do more than just dazzle with flashiness, they're going to fade back into the white noise with Arkiak, Signal the Firing Squad, Viraemia, and the rest of the field that used to be a big deal that nobody cares about anymore since the advent of the dissonant, twisted, atmospheric OSDM explosion. Archspire has a lot of skill, from a frantic bass player that manages to keep the music grounded instead of hopping on a trampoline and hoping everybody notices like Beyond Creation, to a blitzkrieg vocal assault from a deep throated lawn mower, but they need to buckle down and write songs with more strong, memorable moments before they reach any sort of echelon above "decent enough porn".


Originally written for Lair of the Bastard

A common hallmark of many a real artist is the maturation of the creative process. From Picasso to Miles Davis, many of history's most revered auteurs are hailed for the distinct creative periods of their careers, marked by artistic innovation and a pushing of the boundaries not only of their own art but that of the genre itself.

Sometimes, such evolution is anything but. For every Gorguts jumping lightyears ahead of themselves from one album to the next, there's a Metallica willing to try new things no matter how dreadful the result. Still, a release like St. Anger is admirable in its own (*ahem*) special way simply for representing the biggest band in a genre not being content to simply retread old ground. Artistic exploration (even with undesirable results) is at least laudable in theory.

Rather than expand on their core sound for the followup to 2011's already-mediocre All Shall Align, Vancouver's Archspire decided to instead continue in the same vein.

As the first outing by a then-year-old band, All Shall Align was at least passable. While it lacked finesse, such a quality would surely come with age. The Lucid Collective, unfortunately, still hasn't found it yet. While much of the chuggier deathcore elements of their first album are gone, they have instead been replaced by hyperactive sweep picking leads and constant blast beats. The main difference between the two albums is speed. The quintet have obviously all improved as players, but rather than use their new-found skill in a remotely tasteful manner, they choose to play as fast as they can as much as they can.

Archspire essentially take the technical death metal sound of bands like Origin and remove every bit that is at all interesting. The band is composed of incredible players but terrible musicians. They are capable of fantastic vocal and instrumental feats but not much else; that is, they can obviously play notes very quickly and with great proficiency, but the quality of crafting one solid, memorable piece of music eludes them.

In fact, I'm not sure a single riff is to be found anywhere throughout the album's 35 minute running time. Instead there are only stacks of minor thirds with the occasional circus-like chord progression at 400 beats per minute. Add to this the tinny, hollow production and the songs on display have about one tenth the spark of a slowly desiccating severed equine phallus. Blast beats sound more funny than ferocious and Oli Peters' rapid-fire verbal histrionics sound lifeless and lacking in depth.

Ultimately, The Lucid Collective is an exercise in genre conventions, content to wallow in repetitive guitar leads and showoff-y displays of virtuosity without bothering to ask itself "why?" The whole affair seems little more than a technical exercise in the vein of Brain Drill or Beneath the Massacre. Perhaps a few years down the line Archspire will take their work seriously enough to at least attempt reaching for something more than a lifeless rendition of the TV Tropes page on technical death metal.

Archspire was founded in 2010 in Vancouver and made a debut with their first full-length "All Shall Align" the following year, gaining their position among the Canadian tech-death titans along with Cryptopsy and Beneath The Massacre. After being signed to Season Of Mist (Atheist, Gorguts, Wormed), they would release their second full-length in 2014 called "The Lucid Collective."

The first thing that must be said about this album is that like before, the musicianship is beyond top-notch. Both the vocals and instruments wield a ton of velocity and complexity, and it's all beyond impressive. The former has a lot of aggression and some nice range, the guitars deliver lots of complex and rapid-fire melodies and solos, and the drums have just as much technical prowess. These songs do not hold back in showing how utterly talented and skilled the musicians are at doing what they do, and this instrumentation is easily the highlight of the record.

There is a catch, however: As well as the stellar musicianship is the album's greatest strength, it's also the album's greatest weakness. While showcased well, the musicians' talents could have been integrated into constructive tracks better. There are multiple instances where it feels like the record is less focused on delivering concise, engaging tracks and more on showing off, and it sort of takes away from the listening experience and gets a little boring at times. "Fathom Infinite Depth," for an example, opens with fast-paced vocal barks that feel a tad unneeded and almost unintentionally funny. It doesn't completely destroy the release's enjoyment, but it does get a bit stale after a while.

That isn't to say that this album doesn't have its moments, though. The opener "Lucid Collective Somnambulant" is easily the best track that's put on the table, where the vivid musicianship is weaved into a flowing structure so it's both technical and investing. Over the course of the record, there is a good sleuth of powerful guitar solos that mesh well into the songs and truly deliver on top of the other instrumental performances.

The production may be a splitting point for general audiences. The music itself doesn't hold that much atmosphere, and the percussion in particular sounds kind of tinny and wooden. At the same time, however, it does fit the overall tone of what "The Lucid Collective" is trying to reach. Almost possessing the type of mixing that can be found in Obscura or Spawn Of Possession records, while the album definitely could have benefited from more resonance, the thinness of the instruments does click well with the type of sound Archspire is trying to get across.

Although it could have been a bit more concise, "The Lucid Collective" turned out to be a solid death metal release. The musicianship is incredibly potent, albeit having a bad habit of being needlessly flashy it at times. There are some real stand-out moments as well, and those craving extremely technical metal can really sink their teeth into this record. As a sequel to "All Shall Align," this album will also strongly appeal to fans of the band's older material. On the other hand, even if you don't end up enjoying it, at least you can take comfort in enjoying the band's instrumental talents.


Originally posted on: http://metaljerky.blogspot.com/

I have always been a bit skeptical about these kind of bands labeled as technical death metal. I really like the intricate and technical abilities behind the music of bands such as Yes, Rush, Dream Theater, Watchtower, or any other band that can come to your mind. But I at least, find the bands of this new wave… how to say it? Exaggerated maybe. There is the tendency between these bands to play and sound as technical and virtuoso as possible forgetting an essential part of composing music, which is the music itself. A lot of compositions lose themselves in the seas of endless fills, solos and ultra-technical riffs, failing to build up a song. Archspire are a quite recent quintet to whom I was introduced thanks to the recommendation of a friend, so I eventually put my hands to work and got the album to see what was so great about it.

If there is one big problem about this album, it is the drumming. Jesus Fucking Christ, somebody tell that guy to fucking slow down. The drums here happen to suffer from a quite bad production, which gives it a dry sound that after some listens starts to get very tiresome, something that added to the really, and I mean, really fast drumming results in an annoying machine gun-like sound that plagues the music throughout the album and pierces your ears for the 35 minutes that it lasts. I don’t mean to look down on Spencer Prewett’s drumming skills, on the contrary, he clearly knows what he is doing and the execution of his instrument is impeccable, but I honestly can’t seem to get into songs where the drummer is blasting 24/7. This reminds me of a video I once watched on YouTube, where a guy said “as a death metal drummer, the only thing you have to know, is how to blast-beat”. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. For example, there is an interesting break on “Fathom Infinite Depth” towards the second half of the song, which instead of developing into what could have been a melodic and epic solo, or a very good outro, returns to the blast-beating frenzy and technical madness after a few seconds, and it leaves a lot to be desired. “Kairos Chamber” is another example, instead of keeping up with the slow and groovy patterns, he chooses once again to blast-beat the fuck out of his kit. It’s like there are certain rules for a death metal drummer, and one of the most important of them is to try to put blast-beats everywhere you can, no matter what. Though it is tight, powerful and well executed, the drumming suffers from bad production and repetitiousness.

On the other hand, I have to congratulate the guitar duo for their almost perfect performance. We have chaotic, complex riffs patterns and sweeps and intricate licks throughout all the songs, which display an enormous technicality. And then we have the guitar leads, which fortunately, are not random showcases of notes and are crafted with a nice sense of melody and they come in quite often, not just as a “guitar solo”, helping to create more interesting songs to the ear. “Join Us Beyond” is a very good example, with the guitar licks coming in in-between the verses. “Fathom Infinite Depth” (which I previously cited) and “Spontaneous Generation” also feature very good melodic arrangements and “Kairos Chamber” is a quieter and calmer (always by Archspire’s standards) instrumental piece that let us take a rest from the aggressiveness of the technical onslaught. However I’d like to point out one minor flaw about the guitar parts, related to repetitiousness. The tendency to include guitar sweeps is quite high in this band and involuntarily, the band starts repeating almost the same sweep with minimum variations on some of the songs within the album. The ones on “Lucid Collective Somnambulation” and “The Plague of AM” sound almost the same, with few changes, and after a while this formula may result a bit tiresome and, sorry for being redundant, repetitive.

Though it may seem that I have pointed out more negative aspects rather than the positive ones, this is a very good album. Each member of the band knows what they are doing and the music is of very good quality, it’s just that this brand of “technical death metal” is not my cup of tea. I would like Archspire to experiment more with clean guitars and breaks that recreate interesting atmospheres, as those present on this album, though few and far between, are quite successful. Recommended to any technical death metal or death metal fans in general who are looking for an album really worth of their time.

Originally submitted to https://theforlornson.wordpress.com/