Darkness of God

Born of the stylistic ashes of Necrophagist and inspired by the dissonant/technical mechanics of a Deathspell Omega on the black metal side, Artificial Brain for the death metal, 'Darkness of God' appears to follow the trend of the modern extreme metal sound while oscillating between standard and its own particular take. This is heavily neoclassically inspired, to the point the dissonant stuff will often take a step back to accommodate for traditional classical codes in chord progressions, chord resolution or with the leads, occasionally venturing into the trusty area of high tempo arpeggios. There's a sort of anachronistic blending of ancient and current, in that way.

If anything, it's exactly that overactive work-rate on the guitars in general that can come back and bite the record. The guitars are polished and perfectly audible, but simply put: they're just nonstop. This doesn't serve the songs as they're too clogged, with a lack of space around the parts for them to thrive. Now, there are breaks of course: Track 3 'Apologetics' throws in a notable pattern of virtuosic neoclassical leads as a break from the riffing onslaught, the same way Track 5 'Cardinal Sin' transitions into a less busy interlude where the bass at the back can show off its own impressive caliber of musicianship.

The truly interesting parts are not so much the Necrophagist/deathcore like riffing or the flights of high octane lead guitar playing, but rather those complex, melancholic melodies that seem like they're stitching bits of guitar phrases together and making unique verses out of these patchworks of sorts: the start of 'Earthly Kingdom of God in Ruins'; with a rare dissonant harmony; offers more of this oddity in composition, that sounds like errors but that make sense. Also hear: 'The Lord’s Lamentations' after the full intro, or the main riff on the opener 'Violent Gospels' - which may very well be the best riff on the album.

The issue would be those attention-grabbing aberrations, as genuinely interesting and inspired as they are, will generally lead into a following part that brings the cursor back down to "standard", often with well articulated parts but that are still embedded in familiar chord progression frames that could send a signal to the listener the song is no longer as interesting. The closer 'Woeful Redemption' paints a portrait of the band in their pure death metal outfit; with no trace of the melodic/neoclassical aspect; which is an interesting way to finish. It's one of the standout tracks, with complex and memorable themes throughout. It's too bad the album doesn't contain more of that unconventional composition.