Cosmic Enigma

Greece has produced sizeable black and power metal scenes through the years, but when it comes to death metal the ancient country had not much to brag about some twenty years ago. Nightfall and Septic Flesh have been “flirting” with the genre on more or less regular bases, but it wasn’t until the new millennium entered that Greece woke up for the possibilities within this most brutal way of musical expression. Birth of Depravity, Murder Made God, Endless Affliction, Terrordrome, Mass Infection, Essence Beyond, Hesperian, Sickening Horror, Vulnus, Cerebrum… the movement has grown exponentially trying its best to catch up with the other countries.

Cerebrum are a relatively late entry into the cycle their debut “Spectral Extravagance” appearing in 2009, following a brief showing with a 3-track self-titled demo. Essentially “the child” of the guitar players Michalis Papadopoulos and Jim Touras, the band’s style is riff-driven very technical death metal which sides with the more progressive-inclined side of the brotherhood like Theory in Practice, Sectu, and Gorod by adding a certain technical thrash flair from the modern school ala Darkane and Altered Aeon. The mixture worked just fine on the first instalment generating enough interest from the fanbase to encourage the guys to carry on.

Another member from the line-up should also be mentioned, the drum wizard George Kollias, who has done quite a service around the Greek death metal underground taking part in Nightfall, Sickening Horror, Extremity Obsession, etc., and at present is a full-time hitter with the behemoths Nile. He joins the Cerebrum team for the album reviewed here as a one-time stunt, but his participation is more than noticeable. The man gives a hefty boost to this utterly compelling, dazzling intricate rifforama which starts with “Utopian Freedom, Dogmatic Truth”, a hectic amorphous shredder ala “Unquestionable Presence” with a mesmerizing jazzy break in the middle and quirky hallucinogenic vortexes at the end. “Subconscious Extraction” recalls the technical thrashy escapades from the debut at first, but the deathy domination returns on full-throttle with a slab of short, controlled blasts which still give way to some outstanding mazey strokes ala Coroner later. “Dream Infusion Side-Effects” takes a slower, but equally as intriguing direction with winding serpentine riffage its ascent impeded by several stop-and-go techniques and a few surreal jazzy additives where the bass burps with authority.

Several short lead-driven instrumentals have been inserted in-between “the madness” which carries on with “Oblivious Eons”, a jumpy nervous number with a very busy rhythm-section covering a wide ground including an imposing mechanical futuristic passage. “Phobos Manipulation” “manipulates” the environment with more orthodox headbanging thrash, but there’s nothing like linearity to be witnessed here as the band unleash a massive whirlwind of supreme intricate riffs which stride gets broken by an atmospheric jazzy interlude again. This masterpiece remains the highlight although “Self-Regenerate” comes close with its spinning speedy death/thrashy crescendos, and the title-track solves all mysteries of the Universe with its intense diverse provision of ever-altering riff-patterns which jump from one tempo to another within a matter of seconds to a psychedelic, head-shaking effect.

This is a most irresistible conglomerate of technicality and progression which logically tops the endeavours made on the technical death metal arena from the guys’ motherland. Sickening Horror used to be the champions over there, but they “overflowed” with too many ideas on their last opus “Overflow” two years ago, and kind of lost the plot straying from the death metal path with a very modernized dry, math-like sound. Cerebrum dexterously operate within the brutal metal circles, at least for the time being, creating really attractive vistas of aggressive complexity aptly preventing their palette from being overflowed with influences, and from bending their efforts towards the overhyped extreme progressive metal trend. Although we all know that the latter trend is nothing more than badly disguised death metal in 90% of the cases, it’s still good to see an act with a clear vision and focus intent on keeping the boundaries between the genres, also making sure the mystery of these Athenian deathly echoes remains as such for the ones who don’t have the ears for elaborately encrypted messages from the Land of Hades.