Entheos - Time Will Take Us All (2023)^{Release ID: 43138}

The third studio album from Californian tech-death metal band Entheos is my first exposure to the the bands music and it leaves me with a lot to think about. It is certainly a unique album in the technical death metal scene amidst an endless revolving door of technical guitar wankery, and overproduced, overperformed percussion. The bass on this record is heavily featured and left me with Ne Obliviscaris tones, which is a great place to take influence from. The vocals are the real standout though as Chaney Crabb is able to perform with an unprecedented range for any type of death metal in recent memory. There are clean vocals on this album, but they are spaced out and implemented with distinction and highlight this albums softer, progressive moments more efficiently.

While I do enjoy the modulating back and forth between more melodic death ("In Purgatory") as well as death doom stylings of "I Am the Void" and "Time Will Take Us All", it does not feel right when they are surrounded by "Absolute Zero" and "The Sinking Sun", which are just a couple of the albums technical death moments. And while the production is nice, it still does not change the fact that these tracks are not very well constructed; they fall into the very comfortable range of most technical death metal albums with their sporadic tempo/style changes and no sense of direction. Tunes like "Darkest Day" and "Clarity in Waves" are more tolerable due to shorter runtimes, but "The Sinking Sun" is over seven minutes and does not leave a lasting impression on me.

I think Entheos have some sparkling moments on Time Will Take Us All, but they feel held back by a number of issues that generally plague the technical death metal scene from its core. Shoutouts to a smaller band doing new and invigorating things in a subgenre that I do not particularly gel with all that well, but this ain't it chief.

Best Songs: In Purgatory, I Am the Void, Darkest Day