Posts Tagged ‘Technical Death Metal’

Apogean – Cyberstrictive

Toronto Canada’s tech deathsters Apogean make their debut with Cyberstrictive. Vocalist Mac Smith filled in for Bill Robinson of Decrepit Birth recently. Off the bat, Zach Ohren’s (The Faceless, All Shall Perish, Immolation, etc.) mixing and Mastering work is elite. Things get kicked off with “Blue Night Sonata.”  The technical prowess of these guys is […]

Spiritual Deception – Semitae Mentis

While power and black metal was/has often been the primary vehicles for keyboards/ orchestration in metal, I still fondly recall some of my early exposure to more epic keys and orchestration (not just intros or a bit here or there for atmosphere) in death metal such as Nocturnus (arguably the first to do so?), Amorphis, […]

Job For A Cowboy – Moon Healer

It’s been ten years since we last heard from Job For A Cowboy, so let me give a cliffnotes back story: the band is one of the first deathcore bands to blow up thanks to a Spongebob Squarepants video mash-up to the song “Knee Deep” (it is how I first heard the band- and it’s […]

Chaos Sanctuary – Instrumentality

How does a New Jersey Tech Death based on the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion sound? Well, I am intrigued. Things get kicked off with “Synchronization.”   First impressions are a mix of Spawn of Possession with a bit of earlier Archspire. The way they use vibrato is impressive. Pretty insane musicianship from these guys. Excellent guest […]

Exocrine – Legend

When talking about French technical death metal, the absolute top of the list is Gorod, but I think there is an argument to be made for Exocrine to be right there with them. The Bordeuax band has been on an absolute tear since 2018’s Molten Giant, which was somehow their third album already. Then with […]

Cognizance – Phantazein

I became a fan of the UK’s technical death metal band Cognizance, from their Inquisition EP, their debut release in 2013, and reviewed it back then.  I was pretty blown away by the array of technical wizardry and monstrously brutal moments.  The band reminding me of Beneath The Massacre/Obscura type of music.  After releasing a […]

Stortregn – Finitude

Stortregn’s (‘downpour’) development from a melodic black metal band into a more technical, shredding death metal band with a few black metal elements has been a splendid development, and fittingly with the style shift, the band found themselves on the perfect label, The Artisan Era, literally the preemptive label for shreddy/melodic, sometimes symphonic tech death/black […]

Xoth – Exogalactic

I’ve been trying to figure out how I want this introduction to go. There are times when I get an album to review and it’s like a blind date. That’s not always the case especially if I’ve at least heard or read something about them. But with Xoth I’m going in blind as a bat. […]

Wormhole – Almost Human

No longer a band with international members, USA’s brutal tech death metal/deathcore band Wormhole returns with their third album, Almost Human, and debut on Season of Mist Records. Wormhole has been around for 8 years and their 2016 debut, Genesis, caught my attention with the monstrous tech brutality and brutal beatdown slams.  Outside of the […]

Suffocation – Hymns From the Apocrypha

So here it finally is…. the new Suffocation album, and notably the first release without original vocalist Frank Mullen, since the band formed in 1990. While other members (other than the other lone original member, guitarist Terrance Hobbs), have come and gone, Frank and Terrance have been there since day one, so this album is […]

Gory Blister – Reborn From Hatred

Technical Death Metal Italians Gory Blister returns with the 7th full length.  The album kicks off with a cool synth intro into some thrashy riffing over aggressive blasting.  Reminds me of a cross between Vader and Hate Eternal.  “Push through the Venom” gets things kicked off after a fun short intro.   The production is quite […]

Omnivortex – Circulate

From Helsinki Finland, Technical Dissonant Death Metallers Omnivortex returns with their second full-length Circulate. The album kicks off with “Dwells” which opens with a huge dissonant vibrato riff that leads the way for an impressive track.   What makes Omnivortex unique is their dual vocal approach. Both the drummer Aaro Osterman and guitarist Aaro Österman manage […]

Cryptopsy – As Gomorrah Burns

Montreal Technical Death Masters Cryptopsy returns with their eighth studio album As Gomorrah Burns. It was written over the last two years during the pandemic and they wrote and recorded this in a cabin to add to the horror movie-like ambiance.  This is the first full-length album since their 2012 self-titled release featuring original guitarist […]

Contrarian – Demos and Oddities 1995-1999

New York’s Contrarian has been an active contributor to the progressive death metal scene for quite some time now. Having released five full-length records through Willowtip Records Contrarian has decided to release an album of older material. What makes this release interesting is that all the tracks are instrumental. Founding members Jim Tasikas and Ed […]

Pestilence – Malleus Maleficarum/Consuming Impulse/Testimony of the Ancients/Spheres (Reissues)

Is this déjà vu?  I think it may.  Six years ago Hammerheart Records reissued these Pestilence albums in deluxe 2 cd slipcases.  The bonus content was fabulous and not only did I buy all of these, I purchased an album cover shirt for each of them.  I even did some reviews on Teeth of the […]

Dead and Dripping – Blackened Cerebral Rifts

I love head-banging. It is a great feeling to release pent-up energy at a Metal show, the crowd is into the experience; each head is like those fucking drinking birds you can get at the novelty store. Unfortunately for me, my head-banging days are pretty much over. I just kind of shake my head like […]

Pronostic – Chaotic Upheaval

OK, there is a lot to get to here; Pronostic is a Canadian progressive/melodic technical death metal project that hasn’t released anything since 2015s , An Atomic Decision, and before that their 2012 debut Deviated Inner Spectrum. The project is the brainchild of both guitarists/vocalists Alexandre Lauzon and Charles Pilotte, both relative unknowns in the […]

Maze of Sothoth – Extirpated Light

The other day I was driving my mom around and the car decided it wanted to keep playing this album. She was commenting that it isn’t music and even did a growl (which was kind of fucking adorable, I’m not going to lie), however, Death Metal is extreme music for extreme people (and my mom’s […]

Foretoken – Triumphs

Ya know, I had completely forgotten about this North Carolina duo. This is surprising considering I rather enjoyed the debut from a few years ago, and the fact my enthusiasm, some would even say fanboyish obsession with any sort of metal with symphonic/orchestral elements. Throw in another couple of my weaknesses- history/mythological tales and modern, […]

Gorod – The Orb

France’s tech-death metal gods, Gorod, return with The Orb – their seventh album.  Holy smokes I did not realize how time has flown by and the band is self-releasing this through Bandcamp. For me, the best tech-death metal bands are First Fragment, Gorod and Obscura.  I know, I know there’s like a bajillion of tech-death […]

Hammer of Dawn – Uzil EP

I usually don’t review digital-only releases, but when you stumble across a symphonic tech-death supergroup based on one of the greatest video games series’ of all time, I’ll make an exception. Video gamers will recognize the moniker as one of the weapons from the Gears of War series, and indeed Hammer of Dawn is a […]

Greylotus – Dawnfall

I have no excuse why it has taken me to review the debut album from Baltimore’s Greylotus. I got nothing. It’s even sadder considering, I listen to it a lot, and it’s going to be a clear-cut album of the year contender for me, so let’s get to it. Basically, Greylotus’s Dawnfall is if you […]

Xenobiotic – Hate Monolith EP   

This is an instance where I actually bit off far less than I can chew. Damn it, I was really looking forward to a new full-length from Xenobiotic after really enjoying 2020s Mordrake and my body was FUCKING READY. Apparently Xenobiotic weren’t and that’s kind of a problem. Anyway, this little teaser, presumably before their next […]

Exocrine – The Hybrid Suns

Though not quite the tech-death onslaught that 2021 was, 2022 has still had some stellar releases from the likes of Aethereus, Inanimate Existence and GreyLotus. And while GreyLotus’ Dawnfall might be my top contender right now, Exocrine’s fifth album is certainly right up there as well. France’s Exocrine got on my radar with 2020s Maelstrom, […]

Inanimate Existence – The Masquerade

California’s Inanimate Existence has been releasing quality albums for a few years now, but never seems to quite break into the discussion of absolute top-tier tech death with say, First Fragment, Gorod, Obscura, and such. Even when they had Riley McShane (Continuum, Alleageaon) in their ranks back in 2014, they were juuuuuust on that cusp. […]