If ever there were a hit-or-miss subgenre
of metal, it would have to be technical death metal. It is incredibly difficult
to write intricate music that still retains some semblance of songwriting. Even
worse, many metal fans are concerned with riffs, and there’s no shortage of
tech-death bands that only play sweeps and leads. Fortunately, Canada’s
Archspire definitely put forth one of the best efforts in this style in a long
time with their new record “Relentless Mutation”. This band has a somewhat
unique element with their vocalist, who can spit out words with unbelievable
speed and accuracy. He puts pretty much every other singer to shame on
“Involuntary Doppelgänger”, as he matches lightning fast blastbeats hit-for-hit
with his words. This approach sums up a large part of Archspire’s appeal: they
are a rhythmic juggernaut. There is perfect sync between the vocals, drums, and
rhythm guitars, to the point where each riff feels like a punch in the face.
The result is plenty of stop/start moments that make the record feel spastic
and out of control, yet completely in control at the same time.
“Relentless Mutation” does feature a lot
more predictable technical death metal tropes as well. It has plenty of
wandering lead guitars, which, admittedly, are constructed better than most of
the band’s peers could do. It actually feels like Archspire made a concerted
effort to write melodies that make sense instead of ones that are just
technical. Often times these leads will conclude with a quick sweep or other
impressive display of talent. The band’s bassist tends to get in on the fun
once in a while, with “Human Murmuration” being his finest hour. Fortunately, the bass isn't as over-the-top as in some other bands of this style, which is important because there's simply too much going on in Archspire's music to compete.
As the album soldiers on, it doesn’t
falter. While “Involuntary Doppelgänger” and “Remote Tumour Seeker” are the
clear highlights, every song brings a similar mix of quality and absurdity. At
just over 30 minutes, the album doesn’t offer an opportunity for the listener
to get bored. It just constantly bludgeons you over the head with something
new. Even the short clean guitar interludes work because they come after a
constant barrage of blastbeats, and often lead to yet another one. It’s worth
mentioning that drummer Spencer Prewett is probably the most inhuman-sounding
drummer in metal today. Sometimes these types of drummers can get boring, but
somehow he manages to mix things up enough to keep things fresh (even if he has
more snare and bass drum hits in 30 minutes than most drummers do in their
career). All members of a tech-death band are talented, but this guy is just on
another level (along with Archspire’s singer). Overall, “Relentless Mutation”
is an absolutely essential piece of technical death metal that far outshines
what most of the crowd is doing, and truly shows the subgenre’s potential!
Highlights
"Involuntary Doppelgänger"
"Remote Tumour Seeker"
"A Dark Horizontal"
Final Rating
4.6/5 or 92%.
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