Reality Only Fantasized

Now this album was quite the surprise. Along with Fractured, I decided to check the album out, expecting some fairly generic tech death. Well I was dead wrong. What I didn’t expect was that it would be on a similar blueprint yet different in its own special way! Furthermore, I may be putting my head on the proverbial chopping block here, but I actually consider this album a notch superior to their sophomore album Fractured. (Then again I’d admit that I probably share that opinion with only a handful of people, if any people at all). the first two songs namely “Eternal Descent” and “Night Terror” are absolute rippers with guitar parts to die for plus a raging intensity that will really make you sit up and realize that these guys are the real underrated deal. No kidding.

The first thing that leaps out at you is that all the songs are really short and to the point. Some may see this as a shortcoming, but I don’t at all. I mean there are plenty of bands who just stretch songs agonizingly past the 6-7 minute mark, where in reality the songs barely even warrant the duration of 3-4 minutes. The shortest one is just two minutes whereas the longest song is about 3 and a half minutes. No fucking around with needless wankery or mindless dreary brutality with breakdowns lasting for almost a minute, just relentless technical riffs laced with plenty of melody along with subtle touches of groove here and there. The closer “Soul Dissolved” is one of the heaviest (and longer) songs on the album with plenty of technical sections and rhythmic shifts along with a blend of the fast and slow guaranteed to delight all the tech death fans out there.

The intro of “Sightless” definitely pays homage to the wacky sc-fi influenced brand of old school death metal aka Nocturnus, along with the mournful acoustic picking at 1:40 which was quite a surprise for me initially, before I realized how well the sections fit within the context of the song. The very fact that the band can pack in so much variety and tricks into a song just about 3 minutes long is itself a testament to their skills. Yep unlike a lot of the tech death bands out there, special attention seems to have been given to making the perfect alloy of relentless technicality woven into incisive songwriting sensibilities along with a lot of harmonized riffs and licks, surprisingly even planting their flag in the melodeath camp at times. And let’s face it; in the end, that is precisely what amazing technical death metal is all about and believe it or not, this album proves that fact in spades. Once again I really can’t pick standout tracks as all of them are killer in their own way and slay from beginning to end.

Do you long for the old days of tech death when it was all about songwriting and technical yet intelligent composition? If so, then this is precisely what the doctor ordered. Get it now!