Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I (2012)

Ne Obliviscaris is a 6-piece band from Melbourne, Australia who've pretty much just trampled my conviction that nothing will top 2012's Incurso by Spawn of Possession in terms of sheer technicality. Whereas Incurso is a fucking ridiculously complex technical death metal album, Portal of I manages to be a fucking ridiculously complex progressive/melodic death/black metal with jazz, flamenco, classical and Oriental music influences. Fuck me, right?

There's just so much stuff going on this album, that it's next to impossible to describe. First off, most of the songs are over or around the 10 minute mark, which should already let you know that this isn't an easycore band. There are two vocalists in this band, one doing harsh vocals and another one doing clean vocals, and they both duel off constantly in the songs, which creates some really intense vocal trade-offs. They don't overdo it, though, but instead leave ample space for many extended instrumental passages. The clean vocalist also plays the violin, which often takes on the central role during the slow, acoustic passages. When the guitarists aren't playing classical and acoustic guitars, they're engaging in heavy tremolo-picked riffs and highly intricate, intertwining arpeggios and solos that, along with the violin and clean vocals, propel the songs to beautiful melodic heights.

The rhythm section is simply dreamy: the drummer does everything from hyper-blastbeats to elaborate jazzy drumming that reminds of Cynic's Sean Reinert work; meanwhile, the bassist is, as you may expect, another one of those monster octopus-fingered bassists who is in a world all of his own, tearing through miles of labyrinthic notes on his fretless bass, adding a whole new dimension to the music. The long duration of the songs means that the band is able to engage in complex and dynamic compositions, constantly shifting gears between extreme metal riffing, violin-driven passages, delicate acoustic parts and climactic endings when everything comes together at the same time, making for some truly memorable musical moments that will leave any prog-freak moist with desire.

Portal of I is definitely one of those albums that rewards compulsive listeners, with each new listen revealing more details and subtle features in the music that you may have missed the first time around, so it's actually okay to obsess over it, like I have over the past few days. Ne Obliviscaris have created something unique and special and their debut album is without a shadow of a doubt one of the absolute best releases of 2012. They even made me doubt the greatness of Gorod when it comes to my personal favorites, and that's no easy feat. Portal of I is, however, an album that requires a lot of commitment and involvement on your part in order for it to truly shine, so make sure you listen to it in its entirety, in a quiet room. And be ready to say "Holy shit!" a lot.

And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope

The Contortionist - Intrinsic (2012)

August in Greece is apparently a really HOT time and place to be. I'm just recovering after roughly 15 hours on the road, which involved traveling by bus, plane and train and having to wait copious amounts of time on grimy railway station seats.

What I've noticed during these prolonged waiting periods is that, despite the horrific temperatures outside, rivaling Hell itself, there are always some individuals who don't seem at all affected by the heat. I'm talking about those handsome boys wearing designer clothing who always look so fucking perfect and never, ever sweat. Even though it's scorching hot outside, these guys always look like Ken dolls. Their marvelous faces are 100% dry. Their expensive, pristine haircuts aren't tainted by the smallest drop of sweat. While I'm sweating like a pig in my raggedy-ass Immortal shirt, these sweet boys look dry and confident in their fancy shorts and colorful shirts. How do they do it? Did they undergo some sort of surgery to remove their sweat glands so they don't get pit stains while dancing in their shitty nightclubs? Is it just a matter of willpower and mind over matter? Are they gods who never sweat, banished to walk among us, mere mortals, in order to incite us to aspire to greatness? Am I just a filthy, subhuman, sweaty beast?

I guess we'll never know for sure.

Anyway, here is the new album by The Contortionist. It's progressive deathcore, I guess, filled with intricate guitar leads, space-sounding synths, dynamic drumming and clean/harsh vocals. It's highly atmospheric and I strongly suggest you give this a try. The whole album was streaming on AOl's site, but I can't find it anymore. Tough luck. Here's a cool video instead.

Spawn of Possession - Incurso (2012)

Were I not such a strong-willed, determined and resolute motherfucker individual, Incurso would have been the album that put me off technical death metal forever. In many ways, Spawn of Possession's latest offering (coming along a mere six years after their previous effort, Noctambulant) is a lot like that... thing on the cover: a giant, nimble, alien, monstrous juggernaut that crawls across the Earth's surface, cracking the skies and ruining everything you hold dear. And standing in front of it with your arms raised while holding a Bible isn't going to stop it, lemme tell ya!

The line-up for Incurso is quite exciting, as it features two of the original band members, namely Jonas Bryssling on guitar and Dennis Röndum on vocals (who was previously handling drum duties, now being passed on to Henrik Schönström), as well as Erlend Caspersen (Deeds of Flesh, ex-Blood Red Throne) on bass and legendary axe-master Christian Muenzner (Obscura, ex-Necrophagist) on lead guitar. With such fresh blood on the Spawn of Possession roster, it was reasonable to expect that their third studio album will be something to behold.

And it totally is, which is why I was saying it might have been the record that effectively ended tech death for me. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is so outrageously technical and over-the-top that I am seriously wondering a) how much alien DNA do these guys have? and b) how the fuck do they even remember how to play all this?

The guitars on Incurso are nothing short of mindblowing, as these two wizards play at inhumane levels of speed and dexterity while managing to sound tight and precise at the same time. Half the time I don't even know what the hell is going on, as intricate riffs and insane harmonies fly off in all directions like shrapnel from a fragmentation grenade, while the bass lines are working in their own separate ways, often times detaching from whatever crazy structure they're supposed to follow and doing their own thing. The drum work is basically a huge blizzard of relentless blasting, grinding and highly technical fills that's equally hard to comprehend, even after multiple listens. Even the vocals function like clockwork and deliver machine-gun barks and growls in percussive patterns that add to heaviness of the songs. It's controlled chaos: a savage machinery whose inner mechanisms run so fast and seemingly disjointed that it seems like everything is about to spin out of control at any second, yet it is all somehow kept in place.

For all the mind-bending technical sorcery, I do have one major gripe with Incurso, and that is the songwriting. Simply put, no song managed to stick with me, even after a dozen listens. It's almost as if the musicians were so busy playing at breakneck speeds and cramming in as many riffs per song as possible, that they forgot they're supposed to be crafting songs, not technical exhibitions. So while I stand in awe of their technical prowess, their latest album is more of a carpe diem affair: get hyperblasted now, remember none of it later.

Nevertheless, Incurso stands as a megalith of modern death metal and a genre landmark, offering astonishing technical wizardry that, right now, seems impossible to match, let alone surpass. It does lack a bit of feeling and some people will quickly dismiss it as "technical wankery" - and they're not totally wrong. But if you call yourself a tech death fan, you are not allowed to miss this.

Over and out.

Decrepit Birth - Polarity (2010)

Every tech death fan is (or should be) probably in love with Decrepit Birth, and for good reason. These guys have been progressing in leaps ever since their 2003 debut ...And Time Begins, releasing one of the genre's most influential records in 2008, the untouchable Diminishing Between Worlds.

Its 2010 follow-up, Polarity, sees the band stepping up their game even more, managing to create an amazing record that masterfully fuses together brutality and melody. The musicianship here is top-notch and the band displays a lot of progressive, melodic sensibility to go along with their death metal chops. The songwriting has also improved over its predecessor - while you can still characterize their songs as riff salads (albeit incredibly tasty ones), there's always a perceptible structure to them.

The guitars are the center-piece of this record, as Matt Sotelo and Dan Eggers craft lush, beautiful melodies of intertwining guitar leads and outer planetary solos, while Bill Robinson's harsh vocals and KC Howards' intense drumming provide a counterpoint to balance out the otherworldly beauty of the guitar parts. The entire album has a poignant cosmic feel, which is only fitting given that the lyrics are about infinite voids of space within the pockets of time, the micro-physics of subatomic relativity and gravitational singularity. Yeah, Bill Robinson does a lot of drugs. He's also homeless by choice.

Polarity might be my favorite Decrepit Birth record. Diminishing Between Worlds was great, but its follow-up is nothing short of a masterpiece. The amazing musicianship combined with the mindfucking lyrical content make for a fascinating listening experience which I will always cherish.

Seriously, if  you don't like Decrepit Birth, what the hell?

Obscura - Illegimitation (2012)

So German tech death masters Obscura have recently released a compilation called Illegimitation that features a bunch of their older material and, more interestingly, three covers: Flesh and the Power It Holds by Death, Atheist's Piece of Time and one of Cynic's most well known songs, How Could I off their breakthrough record Focus. Obviously, being the flamboyant Cynic fanboy that I am, I got wildly excited at the prospect of Obscura performing How Could I.

Turns out my nipples were right to become erect, as Obscura have totally nailed the song, keeping true to the original yet adding their own personal vibe to their performance. It's a perfect cover of an already awesome song. What more can I say? Check it out below.

Fallujah - The Harvest Wombs (2011)

O singură privire aruncată copertei este de ajuns ca să-ţi dai seama că Fallujah fac parte din brigada trupelor moderne şi cool de technical death metal, stând în aceeaşi linie cu trupe precum Obscura, Anata, Augury sau Aeon of Horus. The Harvest Wombs este un album de debut care-ţi oferă exact ceea ce te-ai aştepta: o doză sănătoasă de death metal progresiv, caracterizat prin versuri despre cosmos, planete şi fenomene astrale, miliarde de riff-uri tehnice ameţitor de rapide care nu încetinesc aproape niciodată şi "dueluri" prelungite între cei doi chitarişti, mult hyperblasting, infuzii delicioase de jazz, solo-uri melodice şi o atmosferă sci-fi pregnantă, totul beneficiind, desigur, de o producţie de cristal, care permite tuturor instrumentelor să se afirme în egală măsură.

Mare lucru nu prea mai am de zis. Am început să mă obişnuiesc cu trendul ăsta recent de a cânta death metal futurist şi chiar mi-a plăcut mai tot ce am ascultat din zona asta. Fallujah nu fac excepţie şi, dacă vă plac trupele de care am zis mai sus, The Harvest Wombs este un album cel puţin la fel de mişto ca tot ce au scos ăia.

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