TECH DEATH WEEK Part I: Archspire - The Lucid Collective (2014)

If 2013 was the year I got back into black metal via the advent of Marco black metal, 2014 is shaping up to be the year I once again become interested in technical death metal. It looks like a ton of tech death bands have put out new albums while my back was turned, including some old favorites of mine, so I think it's time I got back in the game.

Having said that, we're kicking off a week-long series of daily articles, each focusing on one tech death album released in 2014. For the first time, I will be using a pro/con system to rate every release, so it's easy for you to figure out which albums you're most interested in. 

So if you're a fan of technical death metal or just looking to get acquainted with the genre, join me for a week of dick-snapping drumming, mind-bending guitar wizardry, gut-puncturing bass lines, throat-ripping vocals and lyrics so science-y they would make Stephen Hawking's head spin!

This Monday, we're blasting this series off in full force with the sophomore album by Canadian tech death neuromancers Archspire, entitled The Lucid Collective. The original "sweet bros" initially made their name known in 2011 with their first album, All Shall Align, which was an enticing cut of quality technical death metal constructed out of sweep picking, cargo shorts and shaved heads. The Lucid Collective sees the Vancouver outfit upping their game every way imaginable: this whole album is an outstanding display of technicality and aggression.

The sci-fi theme of the album is a perfect vehicle for showcasing the band's skills: there's pretty much non-stop drum kit abuse, with blast beats and interesting fills flying around like shrapnel; their guitar-work is more creative than ever, with numerous tempo and mood changes, ranging from futuristic guitar lines to artillery-like riffs that pound away at your very sanity; the bassist lays down intricate grooves to compliment the spaced-out atmosphere and the vocals are the most impressive element of this album. They're very varied, with percussive, violent barks, growling and high pitched shrieks constantly rotating across songs, providing even more dynamics to the tracks. You only need to hear the song Fathom Infinite Depth to know these guys are really on to something: it starts off with what I can only describe as death metal rapping, moves on to all-out sonic warfare, morphs into an atmospheric ambient piece then quickly resumes the carnage. All in all, The Lucid Collective is an awe-inspiring album and one that will surely place Archspire in the great pantheon of tech death masters. 

Oh, and they've also included a song which references I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Nerd status: confirmed.

PROS: 

- amazing cover art 

- sci-fi themed songs that RIP

- jaw-dropping technicality

- next-level vocals
- br00tal snare sound

- BLEARGH!!!

CONS:

- ????

Spawn of Possession - Incurso (2012)

Were I not such a strong-willed, determined and resolute motherfucker individual, Incurso would have been the album that put me off technical death metal forever. In many ways, Spawn of Possession's latest offering (coming along a mere six years after their previous effort, Noctambulant) is a lot like that... thing on the cover: a giant, nimble, alien, monstrous juggernaut that crawls across the Earth's surface, cracking the skies and ruining everything you hold dear. And standing in front of it with your arms raised while holding a Bible isn't going to stop it, lemme tell ya!

The line-up for Incurso is quite exciting, as it features two of the original band members, namely Jonas Bryssling on guitar and Dennis Röndum on vocals (who was previously handling drum duties, now being passed on to Henrik Schönström), as well as Erlend Caspersen (Deeds of Flesh, ex-Blood Red Throne) on bass and legendary axe-master Christian Muenzner (Obscura, ex-Necrophagist) on lead guitar. With such fresh blood on the Spawn of Possession roster, it was reasonable to expect that their third studio album will be something to behold.

And it totally is, which is why I was saying it might have been the record that effectively ended tech death for me. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is so outrageously technical and over-the-top that I am seriously wondering a) how much alien DNA do these guys have? and b) how the fuck do they even remember how to play all this?

The guitars on Incurso are nothing short of mindblowing, as these two wizards play at inhumane levels of speed and dexterity while managing to sound tight and precise at the same time. Half the time I don't even know what the hell is going on, as intricate riffs and insane harmonies fly off in all directions like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade, while the bass lines are working in their own separate ways, often times detaching from whatever crazy structure they're supposed to follow and doing their own thing. The drum work is basically a huge blizzard of relentless blasting, grinding and highly technical fills that's equally hard to comprehend, even after multiple listens. Even the vocals function like clockwork and deliver machine-gun barks and growls in percussive patterns that add to heaviness of the songs. It's controlled chaos: a savage machinery whose inner mechanisms run so fast and seemingly disjointed that it seems like everything is about to spin out of control at any second, yet it is all somehow kept in place.

For all the mind-bending technical sorcery, I do have one major gripe with Incurso, and that is the songwriting. Simply put, no song managed to stick with me, even after a dozen listens. It's almost as if the musicians were so busy playing at breakneck speeds and cramming in as many riffs per song as possible, that they forgot they're supposed to be crafting songs, not technical exhibitions. So while I stand in awe of their technical prowess, their latest album is more of a carpe diem affair: get hyperblasted now, remember none of it later.

Nevertheless, Incurso stands as a megalith of modern death metal and a genre landmark, offering astonishing technical wizardry that, right now, seems impossible to match, let alone surpass. It does lack a bit of feeling and some people will quickly dismiss it as "technical wankery" - and they're not totally wrong. But if you call yourself a tech death fan, you are not allowed to miss this.

Over and out.