Man, talk about a genre that is just about done and done; technical death metal has wormed its way into a black hole of nothingness, the onwards and upwards trend of more, more, more just adding up to a infinity of emptiness. But Sweden's Soreption are taking the sound here on their second full-length and reminding us that it can be great when done right.
"Breaking the Great Narcissist" has excellent machine-gun riffing; it's catchy, it's heavy, it's technical and it hammers home, hard. "Monumental Burden" sort of (kind of, work with me here) apes Meshuggah back when all they did was ape '89 Metallica, but it works well enough. The intro riffing to "I Am You" is killer, and the ending of the title track, placed in the final position on the album, well, we've heard that move before, but like everything this band does, they do it so convincingly you really can't help but get into it.
With production restrained enough that it lets a bit of humanity shine through (is that a gasp I hear at the ending of "Monumental Burden"?) without being overproduced, this one is a winner, combining technicality with just a touch of humanity. And here I thought all technical death metal was played by emotionless robots.
(Unique Leader)"Breaking the Great Narcissist" has excellent machine-gun riffing; it's catchy, it's heavy, it's technical and it hammers home, hard. "Monumental Burden" sort of (kind of, work with me here) apes Meshuggah back when all they did was ape '89 Metallica, but it works well enough. The intro riffing to "I Am You" is killer, and the ending of the title track, placed in the final position on the album, well, we've heard that move before, but like everything this band does, they do it so convincingly you really can't help but get into it.
With production restrained enough that it lets a bit of humanity shine through (is that a gasp I hear at the ending of "Monumental Burden"?) without being overproduced, this one is a winner, combining technicality with just a touch of humanity. And here I thought all technical death metal was played by emotionless robots.