Italy’s Miscreance released their terrific debut album, Convergence, four years ago, and it was a great blend of technical death metal alongside some thrash elements, rooted in 90’s style. With the lineup intact, album number two, Reminiscence, sees a greater emphasis on all things progressive as well as upping the intensity a bit.
“Trait d’Union” has an excellent opening sequence with an Atheist Unquestionable Presence influence on the sound and texture. The instrumentation is superb, with terrific bass lines. Andrea Feltrin has a great set of pipes that will have you thinking of Martin van Drunen. Powerful and enunciated well. The 2.15 section gets right into a blast beat, as the song had been galloping previously. Killer guitar solos and some deep spoken word moments are throughout the song. The rhythm section is on fire!
“Vision” is up next, and once again that bass guitar sound is tremendous, with its techy and proggy plucking away. Jean Claude Rossignol does a tremendous job. Spoken word vocals enter around the two-minute mark, and there is a little bit of a duet, as the growly vocals seem to answer the spoken word moments. Creative. Impressive signature time changes, and any fan of Pestilence/Gorguts/Death/Atheist in the 1991 time period is going to salivate at this album. And if you do not have the debut, you are going to want that pronto! This song is very complex but also very catchy.
“Synaptic Cortex Dissection” starts things off slower as the song has a great crunchy guitar riff, with phenomenal vocals. Thinking I am going to see Martin van Drunen did the vocals on this, I mean, close your eyes and listen to this, to see what I mean. Some stupendous drum work, prior to the 90-second mark, is going to have you thinking of Neal Peart from Rush. Feltrin’s drum work is some of the best I have heard in years. This may be the best drum work, thus far, on any 2026 release. The song gallops along, and the moment at 3.36, with the guitar harmonies and rhythm section, is godly.
“Mirage” closes the album with some extraordinary musicianship, and the double pounding blast at the minute mark will have you headbanging furiously. The song settles into a slower death/thrash gallop with some Cynic madness and guitar soloing. This is mainly an instrumental; however, the whispered vocals throughout the song are mesmerizing. Some growls enter into the picture, as the song fades with classical instrumentation to close this album out.
Reminiscence may be the best walk down memory lane of all those bands I mentioned, in recent memory. Miscreance injects a fire and spirit into this technical wizardry of death metal. Sure, the thrash elements are present, but this is death metal through and through. The musicianship is top-notch and not something I would expect from a band this young. The album cover captures the music, with the swirling and layered moments throughout this album. Just like the album cover, the music is a work of art. What an amazing band.
