Initializing Irreversible Process

Deceptionist in an Italian tech death band formed fairly recently in 2013. Initializing Irreversible Process is their first full length released via brutal/tech death kingpins Unique Leader Records.

First of all that album artwork is extremely intriguing as well as relevant to the album's lyrical matter; it chronicles a reality in which humans are reduced to mere slaves to their impassive mechanical masters. Such is the music on Initializing Irreversible Process, it lacks that human emotion so to speak, though I firmly believe that is what the band was aiming for. The lyrics take the listener for a journey, however, they aren't particularly well written but get the mind going nonetheless.

The guitars are technical & percussive but tend to get exhaustive & repetitive (especially the rhythm work). The guitarists bust out (usually) brief but awesome solos which provide limited breaks from the mechanical monotony. You can tell that these guys are influenced greatly by the tech death gods, Necrophagist. However, don't expect any sort of melodic riffage or neoclassical styled compositions heard in Epitaph or OoP. Granted that this is much heavier than contemporary melodeath-esque tech death, it doesn't offer much in the way of direct brutality. If anything the overall music gives the vibe of an gigantic industrial machine shifting & operating without halt. The samples utilized work for the most part, often times enhancing the overall sound rather than being an afterthought. Samples aren't really that common in tech death and they are integrated well into the standard instrumentation here. The vocals show some promise at certain instants but still tend to get tiresome more often than not. That bark is decent enough but come on man (!) do something else for once, goddamn it. The drum-work, on the other hand, is top-notch; the controlled blasts, awesome fills, varied tempos are all very befitting. Too bad the the riffs & rhythms over it diminish the excellence displayed.

Deceptionist have put forward an interesting record which aims to meld industrial touches onto a tech death framework. However, it's gets bogged down too often with many tracks feeling as if they are going nowhere. The more interesting moments occur when the samples step in (the weird humming sample in Quest for Identity) and the band experiments outside the tech death boundary (Industivolutionaction, mid-time tempo change in The Confession). Moments like these were oddly satisfying and ultimately proved somewhat memorable.

I really wanted to enjoy this more than I actually did but I still believe the band has potential to improve and refine their sound. While I can dig what they are trying to achieve here, a bit more creativity in the songwriting, less emphasis on repetition & tiresome rhythms can yield much better results in the future. There is fun to be had here for sure. Don't get me wrong, despite the criticisms this is actually pretty decent stuff. However, the contemporary tech death scene is filled with decent & talented bands. Unfortunately, Deceptionist don't get past that decent barrier & into true greatness. Sorry guys.