Black Comedy

Mechanical precision and a technological aesthetic dominate the texture and structure of Instigator, the new album from Norway’s Black Comedy. The record is a hybrid machine — technical death, progressive metal and industrial welded together with percussive and chaotic rhythms, synth undertones and melodies, and harsh vocals. The result is something like a fusion of Meshuggah and Soilwork filtered through an American metal lens. The band members’ other gigs in Susperia (and formerly Old Man’s Child) exert a sneaky influence as well. At times, Instigator works but the recurring choruses of semi-melodic screamo vocals turn into an annoying distraction and throw off the already uneasy balance of synth-prog noodling, jackhammer guitars and electro-groove. "Decadence” is the best song of the bunch, where the disjointed parts transform into something better as a whole.