Hey there tech fiends, it's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual reminder that if you're looking for more sick music, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
As a country, Poland has a reputation for churning out top-notch death metal that's as precise as it is coldly wicked, and long-running act Redemptor is no exception. Arthaneum is the third full-length album from Redemptor and we have the full early stream of it for you today ahead of the release this Thursday through SelfMadeGod Records.
I've been following Redemptor since 2011 when 4th Density dropped, and somehow they just keep getting better and better over the years. With Arthaneum best exemplifying the groups constant re-shaping towards greatness most of anything released by them to date. On Arthaneum, the music is largely driven by a strong Ulcerate influence, but with a lot of other influences in the mix including a bit of Nile, Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Soreption, Svart Crown, and early Fallujah sounding lead guitar work at times too. The album starts off strong with a massively heavy two-song salvo of "Éminence Grise" and "Enormous, Absolute" which feel quite homogenous in their style and execution of huge dissonant dreary deathscapes. From there, the album really starts to show off a more diverse and varied sound as the rest of the album unfolds. Starting with "Cremation Of Care" and "Semantic Incoherence" which are my two favorite songs here and showcase a more "standard" but no less thrilling tech-death style than the two opening cuts.
Starting off with such a ridiculously strong four tracks is a big plus that really hooked me on Arthaneum and keeps me coming back. And the band continues to deliver high-grade skillful death metal on every track that follows all the way until it ends. As stated above, there’s a lot of variety in the songs on Arthaneum that really helps make this a great record. Sometimes the band leans heavily into their take on twisted atmospheric heavy Ulcerate-y type tech-death, others carry a more traditional death metal feeling, whereas others go for a more blackened vibe or feature softer interesting piano-led moments that are fantastic.
Regardless of what a given song brings different than the others, Arthaneum is full of music that deftly captures a dark and mournful feeling. This is super heavy stuff that is intriguingly gloomy and altogether bone-crushing technical death metal supported by massive grooves everywhere. If you're looking for a tech-death record outside of the super shreddy normal mold, this should be right up your alley. So jam our early stream of Arthaneum below. If you're digging it, you can purchase Arthaneum through SelfMadeGod Records here. Be sure to follow the group over on the Redemptor Facebook Page as well.
