Chasm of Aeons

This split sees Blood Harvest gather together some prime nuggets of sci-fi themed technical death metal. These are selected from some of the smaller names in the recent renaissance of the genre following the success of Vektor and Blood Incantation.

This four-way split opens with ‘Cosmic Dreams’, a single from Leeds’ own Cryptic Shift, originally released back in 2017. Still riding the waves of their triumphant debut LP ‘Visitations from Enceladus’ released this year, this single tracks their progression from the technical thrash outfit found on the ‘Beyond the Celestial Realms’ EP (2016), into the new darlings of progressive death metal they are today. It’s a dense choppy number that leaps from meaty staccato riffs that would almost be at home on a brutal death metal album to spacey free jazz, and back to a rich interplay of guitar leads, showcasing the virtuosity of the players. Link riffs, and the Steve Tucker-esque vocal narration of guitarist Xander Bradley, guide us through the transitions that stitch this thick but varied gut punch of a track together. But pay attention, every moment is nutrition dense and laden with three-dimensional musical chess; blink and you’ll miss it.

Next up is New Jersey’s Replicant with the track ‘Unbeing’. This immediately makes its divergent intentions known when compared to the playful meanderings of Cryptic Shift. Conventional rhythms played at tempos we can actually ingest in one sitting form the foundation for a run of the mill journey down semi-technical dissonance. The drums offer up plenty of interesting patterns to unsettle the loose guitars, but they stick to each pattern long enough for the listener to take in. We also note some post rock leanings in the use of droning chords to contrast with the thicker front half of the track. This eventually decays into a brutal slam breakdown of sorts as the ideas eventually dry up completely.

Cleveland’s Inoculation then bound in with the track ‘Xerthaneus’. This is a more straight down the middle reading of technical death metal. The time signatures are more conventional, the tempo changes are fewer, but everything is embroiled in a frantic energy born of the unstoppable momentum of the guitars. They rebound from one choppy riff to the next, backed by a tight, consistent rhythmic pummelling from the drums. Vocals are also more in line with the old school guttural style. What’s also notable is that despite the multiple tracking of the guitars throughout, there is a break for the solo where the rhythm drops out entirely. Whether a choice born of necessity or creativity, it ekes out an interesting arena of space couched within this short track, further emphasised by the doom breakdown towards the end.

Finally, to close this EP we have the new kids on the block Astral Tomb. This is the most demo quality recording of the bunch, but still points to some interesting interpretations of the astral death metal craze, even if the track title – ‘Transcending from the Mortal Plane Guided by a Familiar Phantasm’ – doesn’t speak of an artist afraid of underselling itself. Despite the lo-fi production, one can see a band with an ear for atmosphere as much as creating dense, riff heavy death metal. There are plenty of slower breakdowns that give the lead guitars a chance to shine as an augmenter of the oppressive qualities inherent within the rhythm guitars, and not just a vacuous showcase of virtuosity. Combining these glum atmospheres with some upbeat passages of more down the middle death metal actually calls to mind Northern European traditions more than it does mid-90s prog.

Originally published at Hate Meditations