To be honest, the answer is a bit mixed. Bleed the Future is certainly a blistering. worthwhile follow-up to the last album and continues the band’s now honed in sound, in a short 30-minute stab of no-frills, no-nonsense, blistering, clinical technical death metal. But I’d have to say it’s hardly an improvement, but at least equal, and that’s partially because Relentless Mutation was, well……. so relentless, and Bleed The Future delivers essentially the same levels of warp-speed shredding insanity that does not let up, with the only respites being a few bars of acoustics (“Drain of Incarnation”) or even a brief moment of classically inspired music (“Reverie on the Onyx”) which uses Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” to start a couple of the tracks.

Still present is Oliver Rae Aleron, who vocally, is the tech death metal equivalent of Eminem’s‘”Rap God’ on every song, with a unique and dizzying cadence that becomes essentially an instrument he wields much like the guitars of Dean Lamb and Tobi Morelli and ridiculously inhuman drums of Spencer Prewett; all of which are delivered with absolute master craft levels of skill.  And returning is Producer Dave Otero, making everything as clinical and surgical as possible, so every sweep (well the whole album basically) slices and dices and every blast beat is a salvo of dizzying complexity.

But the issue is, and always has been and always will be the level of memorability and enjoyment. While some of their 2021 tech-death peers have developed a little (Ophidian I, First Fragment) , or even reigned things in (Obscura), the listener will have to decide if Archspire’s staunch delivery of essentially the same over the top sound as the last 2 albums is worth it. And for fans, it will be. but I’m a little on the fence. Once I heard opener “Drone Corpse Aviator” (which actually delivers on the term ‘face-melting’ in the above video), I feel like I’ve know what the next 7 songs will deliver as well.

Other than a couple of above-mentioned respites, it’s just a completely insane, sweep and blast orgy of speed. And again, that’s fine, sometimes, it takes my breath away, but sometimes, with tracks from the aforementioned opener, through batshit insane standout “Golden Mouth of Ruin” (which is features a rare ‘groove’ per say…), “Abandon the Linear”, the title track, or  “Acrid Canon”, I’m not sure where the songs stop-start as they bleed into the songs before and after. Still, aficionados of unrelenting tech will slurp this up, as they should its fucking mind-blowingly impressive at times, but also, at times pretty soulless, maybe album number 5 should think about tweaking the formula a tad.

As closer “A.U.M”  states in its intro, “Bring Back the fucking danger in the music!”

Well, they are up the the task, as they have equaled the debut both in tech ridiculousness and intensity.

Once again, this is one of those tech death metal records  along the likes of First Fragment, Beneath the Massacre, Vale of Pnath, Rings of Saturn and  The Zenith Passage, that many  folks will decry as soulless tech death that’s about skill, not songs. But personally this is both, the skill displayed is jaw dropping, but like many of their peers mentioned earlier as well as say Inanimate Existence, they can make the songs intelligent and memorable. Basically if you like any of the aforementioned bands, you will dig this.

The lineup being largely intact (Jared Smith replaces Jaron Evil on bass) helps, so there is continuity in both sound, skill and delivery, and at times it’s dizzyingly good. The album is even shorter than its predecessor, at only 30 minutes,  which actually helps due to the stimulation overload of shredding, sweeping blasting intensity throughout. The respites only come on short spurts of atmospherics (“Involuntary Doppleganger”, “The Mimic Well”, “A Dark Horizontal”) or acoustic bits to start or end songs (“Relentless Mutation”), but for the most part, this thing literally shreds from start to finish. It’s not quite as playful or melodic as First Fragment or Gorod, but boy is it well played and intense.

Highlights are hard to pick out amid the sheer chaos, but the closing trio comprised of slightly more restrained and melodic  “The Mimic Well”, utterly insane, Origin on meth “Calamus Will Animate” (that opening machine gun vocal overly is just sick) and  6 minute closer “A Dark Horizontal”, which shows a little more experimentation within the shredding tech vortex, are all fucking killer, and had me replaying.

I’m sure this will be a divisive album, as the debut was, as the clinical ostentatious is at time overwhelming, but in a year of great tech death metal, Archspire is right up there with Origin, Decrepit Birth, Beneath, Suffocation, Beheaded, Inanimate Existence and others regardless of how you view their delivery, and then some. 

Hailing from Canada, Archspire is a young act that resides on a certain end of the tech death spectrum. The end inhabited by the likes of later Origin, Obscura, Rings of Saturn, Burning the Masses, Kamikabe, Hiroshima Will Burn, Fallujah, and such. That’s to say amid the band’s innate super technical, gregarious  Canadian chops that sits in nicely with Augury,  Beneath the Massacre and such the band has a slight deathcore tone and one that’s chock full of shredding, melodic sweeps, super choppy,  noodly riffs, generic high and low vocals, and that oh so clinical, clicky production.

This will be one of those records that you will love or hate and will get stuck in the middle of the ‘skill vs song writing’ . Those that clamor for memorable riffs and songs will be irked by Archspire’s ADHD approach to song writing that pitters and patters all over the place with gleefully robotic precision. But those that enjoy sheer controlled chaos with nary second of restraint or catchy-ness, will wallow in Archspire’s completely over the top delivery and skill. Personally, while I’m, usually in the first group, there is something about the utterly insane technical virtuosity displayed by Archspire that I am really enjoying, the same way I enjoy Necrophagist’s albums, despite no discernible structure.

From opener “Lucid Collective Somnambulation”, The Lucid Collective is a shrill, sweep heavy vortex that rarely lets up. Second phenomenal  track “Scream Feeding” has a few breaks here and there before “Plague of AM (Cogito Ergo Sum) ” delivers a gravity blast that would make John Longstreth blush (Archspire drummer Spencer Prewett is one to watch) . Vocalist Oli Peters gets in on the act to start “Fathom Infinite Depth” with a tongue destroying cadence to start the song showing vocalists can get in on this uber technical style as well. “Join Us Beyond” is just bat shit fucking insane (in a good way), being one long, 4 minute arpeggio over stop/start blast beats.

The lone break from the assault is mostly acoustic instrumental  “Kairos Chamber” which is sandwiched between two of the albums better tracks, “Seven Crowns and the Oblivion Chain” and closer “Spontaneous Generation” which blazes by with a more neo classical sheen amid the debilitating technical carnage.

To its credit, The Lucid Collective, at 35 brisk minutes, the album  does not over stay it’s welcome, as anything over 40 minutes of this style would be simply draining and forgetful. But as it stands, Archspire has delivered a fucking brilliant tech death record that’s mind blowingly played and with just enough semblance to have some staying power and should hold fans over until Omnipresent drops.