The Technical Death Metal Thread
Liers in Wait - "Spiritually Uncontrolled Art" E.P. (1992)
I'm finding that I don't have much time for full-length reviews this week so I'm gonna give you a short synopsis of a few records that I've been spinning recently. This one is from my early 90's tape trading days & represents the only proper release from Swedish death metallers Liers in Wait. "Spiritually Uncontrolled Art" isn't a bad description of what you can expect to hear either as these three dudes go completely apeshit with the compositions being extremely chaotic & ADD-fuelled. The song structures rarely stay in one place for longer than a few seconds, changing spasmodically from one idea to the next amid a barrage of clicky drum blasts. While the riffs themselves may not be all that technical, the song structures are so complex that this release simply must reside in the tech death camp with the urgency & vitality in the performances keeping me on the edge of my seat throuhgout. The performances aren't terribly precise but that's all part of the appeal with an artist like Liers in Wait & I've found myself really buying into what they're selling here.
For fans of VoidCeremony, early Atrocity & "The Red In The Sky Is Ours"-period At The Gates.
4/5
Cavern Womb - Stages of Infinity (2024)
Y'know, for as much as I go off about Chilean Thrash Metal as one of the most prolific scenes in Metal at the moment, East Coast NA Tech Death is starting to get really, really close to being the thing to look out for. Whether it's Replicant from New Jersey that everyone but me seems to love, or Tomb Mold from Toronto, or Lunar Chamber from Florida that had that standout EP from last year, things are looking up. Well after showing up to a Philly concert myself recently there's another PA/Philly band that's coming out of the woodwork showing some promise with this ripping 25 minute EP that sounds way to mature for a band that has only had a 3 song split before dropping this beast. I do think we're getting a bit inundated with some similar sounding Tech Death since there's just so damn much of it nowadays, but Cavern Womb's songwriting and mix of influences has really propelled this one to the top for me. Stages of Infinity definitely lives up to its Tech Death tag, but not in the same way as other bands who seem to throw some complex riffing and some fretless bass at the wall and see if it sticks. In my opinion, you can tell from the first song that this EP is extremely tight in the way it moves and transitions in between each riff and tempo without it feeling jerky or forced. That continues through the whole thing and only gets better as it goes, with "Cryopreserved" and "A Vessel For The Esoteric" being some of the best Tech/Progressive Death Metal I've personally heard in a while. This kind of sound definitely appeals to my personal tastes as its less about brutality and more about weird progressive/psychedelic adventures in between some incredibly compelling riffs. I'm going to be listening to this one way more and it may turn into one of the few EP's that make my year end list, I'm seriously enjoying this one. This happened last year with the Lunar Chamber EP, although I think this one is even better at a glance, so these guys need to get their acts together and release full lengths already! (...Y'know whenever they feel like it and all that.)
4/5
Gorguts - "The Erosion of Sanity" (1993)
Warning! Warning! Fucking monster influence alert! Immense masses of fanboyism will likely ensue in the paragraphs that follow ladies & gentlemen! You see, I was already a big fan of Canada's Gorguts when their 1993 sophomore album "The Erosion of Sanity" landed on the shelves. I'd purchased their 1991 debut "Considered Dead" on CD a year or two earlier & it had left me thoroughly impressed, perhaps not with the originality in Gorguts' sound as that release wasn't exactly groundbreaking however its execution was top notch & it showcased an outstanding pedigree in classic death metal. By 1993 though, I'd become obsessed with the more brutal end of the genre & had also developed a fascination with the more technically proficient bands in the scene so it came as a wonderful surprise to hear my brand-new copy of Gorguts second full-length upping the ante in both departments. "The Erosion of Sanity" would go on to play a major role in the direction of my own band Neuropath over the next few years so it's always maintained a special place in my heart. This week I decided to give it a more critical investigation than I'd ever done before in order to see where it rightfully should sit in the star-studded Gorguts back-catalogue.
While "Considered Dead" was extremely proficient at what it attempted & delivered a very solid meat-&-potatoes brand of death metal, I don't think I ever thought of it as any sort of classic as it simply came a little too late in the game for that with the bands & records it was trying to emulate already having produced the elite releases for its old-school death metal sound & occasionally even doing it better too. "The Erosion of Sanity" saw Gorguts taking a new direction though. The early Death influence that dominated "Considered Dead" had been replaced by a more modern & sophisticated compositional approach that was much closer to Death's "Human" than it was Chuck Schuldiner's earlier works while the riff structures had been boosted by a significant amount of complexity & technicality, not to mention having been beefed up by the influence of brutal death metal pioneers Suffocation whose debut album "Effigy of the Forgotten" had clearly been in high rotation in the Gorguts rehearsal studio. This time the band had opted not to record at Florida's legendary Morrisound Studios with its equally notorious producer Scott Burns, instead staying home in Quebec where they worked with Englishman Steve Harris (no, not that one) who had previously worked with extreme metal bands like Acid Reign, Lawnmower Deth, Fear Factory & Bolt Thrower which has resulted in a seriously chunky & quite dense production job that perfectly highlights Gorguts' strengths, even if it can leave things sounding a little samey if you're not paying close attention.
Gorguts' had maintained the same lineup that produced "Considered Dead" which certainly helped their cause but, as we now know, it's always been guitarist Luc Lemay's (Negativa) project & his vocals are a major highlight on "The Erosion of Sanity", with his raspy growl rearing up into monstrous territory quite regualarly. Lemay provides the song-writing with the touch of added savagery that was needed to give Gorguts more of an edge & it works very well over the more ambitious instrumentation which sees the album easily managing to differentiate itself from its more than acceptable older sibling. The musicianship on display is nothing short of dazzling at times & I particularly enjoy the bass performance of Eric Giguere who shows himself to be leaps & bounds ahead of most of his contemporaries, buoyed by a nice mix that helps to isolate his basslines from the controlled chaos that surrounds them. There's a spider-fingered feel to the way Gorguts have constructed many of the riffs that leaves me with no doubt whatsoever of the influence of Suffocation, only these lads opt to deliver their assault with more subtlety, if not much more in the way of dynamics.
The tracklisting is particularly consistent with all eight songs showing themselves to offer plenty on the way of thick, heavily palm-muted yet still highly technical death metal riffage. The A side is completely without blemish & leaves the listener with little option but to claim Gorguts as a new member of the tier one death metal players. There are a couple of tracks included on the B side that aren't quite at that level (see "Hideous Infirmity" & closer "Dormant Misery") but the other six songs are simply ooze of class & a feel that's undeniably classic. If I was forced to pick favourites I'd have to go for the first three songs with the title track being perhaps my pick of the bunch.
The Gorguts back catalogue sits amongst the strongest in all of death metal in my opinon so "The Erosion of Sanity" was always gonna have stiff competition in that regard but I'm thrilled to have discovered that it's lost none of its charm over the three decades since I first purchased my CD. Sadly, I'd suggest that it's no longer my absolute favourite Gorguts record though. I think that honour would now have to go to 2013's magnificent comeback album "Colored Sands" while I'd also suggest that I'd place 2001's "From Wisdom to Hate" release slightly ahead of "The Erosion of Sanity" these days. That's not to say that this is not still a classic technical death metal record though & one of the rare tech death releases that has a legitimate claim to the tag too, rather than simply being a mistagged progressive death metal record. After the experience of this weeks revisit, I have no hesitation in claiming that every The Horde member worth their zombie film collection should treat "The Erosion of Sanity" as essential listening.
For fans of Death, Suffocation & Cryptopsy.
4.5/5
Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All (2024)
Nile finally return with their tenth studio album, almost five years on from 2019's Vile Nilotic Rites. These guys are one of my absolute favourite tech death crews, but even I must admit that they have been somewhat underwhelming over the last two or three albums, so I didn't go into The Underworld Awaits Us All with particularly high expectations. Happily, however, the band seem to have returned, post-pandemic, with a renewed sense of purpose, laying down their best material for some time. They have obviously retained the technical chops and songwriting skill that such well-established names have accumulated over the years, but they have also rediscovered a younger band's vitality and energy that it seemed had deserted them some time ago. They have definitely upped the ante in the brutality stakes on The Underworld Awaits Us All, their technical skullduggery all seemingly directed towards the purpose of hammering your senses with pummelling body blows of visceral and savage precision.
The riffing is some of their best in years, frantic, fierce and energetic, yet flawlessly executed, whilst the soloing is expansive and expressive, yet is also superbly controlled and tightly executed so as not to sound self-indulgent or trite. Particular note must be made of George Kollias machine gun-like drumming which reaches hyperkinetic performance levels without ever missing a beat. The man must be part Terminator to sustain this level of drumming intensity and precision. The production is worth a mention as it is as impressive as the musical performances, with a depth and clarity that allows the entire band to shine and no one suffering for want of presence in the mix, both guitars and drums sounding beautifully crisp and sharp.
This is obviously a Nile record so there is a certain level of grandiosity expected, which is lent an additional level of pomp by the inclusion of operatically choral backing vocals to accompany the usual roaring, deathly growls and the eastern-flavoured interludes are present and correct once more. Despite the emphasis on the Ancient Egyptian themes that permeate the band's very essence, I have never really felt that they get in the way of the music and once more that is true here. The moments where the atmospherics take over are relatively brief, being mainly restricted to the short interludes and the closing instrumental, "Lament for the Destruction of Time", the band never losing sight of the fact that their fans are metalheads who come to hear technically adept death metal that is at once searingly savage and brutally bludgeoning. And in that respect Nile have delivered, presenting us with their best album since Those Whom the Gods Detest and in so doing, rising once more to the top of the tech death tree.
4/5