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.
Just two years ago in this very column, I was lucky enough to help New Jersey natives Replicant launch an early stream of their four-song EP, Worthless Desires. Looking back on what I said then, much of it still holds true to the group's new album, Negative Life. Replicant on Negative Life, much like on Worthless Desires, still draws mainly on an older Gorguts influence, and there is still a prominent dimension of old school death metal within their music that draws from groups like Ripping Corpse and Morbid Angel. Merged with chaotic skronky passages throughout that often reminds me of Negativa and Pyrrhon's disturbing and unconventional styles of death metal. If all that sounds like a good time to you, then click play below on our early full stream of Negative Life ahead of its official release this Friday through PRC Music.
Negative Life shows the group really upping the ante, and proves the bands worth on the world stage as a group to watch. The riffs here are stronger and stranger, the songwriting is denser, a newly introduced otherworldly atmospheric side adds a new eerie edge to their music, and all in all, Negative Life hits harder in every way than it's predecessor. It’s easy to deliver dark sounds, but much harder to give weight and emotion to it in a way that connects with the listener, something Negative Life does in a way that sounds downright haunting and achingly miserable. The end result, while in line with a lot of what’s out there, occupies it’s own space within the pantheon of modern era technically inclined warped death metal. Particularly because, outside of Artificial Brain and a few others, most bands of this ilk have no interest in original death metal wave influences within their sound. In essence, the goal here seems to be an exercise in doing more with less, and it works in their favor every time from start to finish.
Negative Life is an interesting experiment in blending old-school cavernous death metal attitude and style with modern dissonant skronky flavor. I think more than anything, the degree of evolution Replicant shows here on Negative Life just a few years after Worthless Desires bodes well for a bright future with even further greatness yet to come. So check out our early stream of Replicant – Negative Life, and if you’re digging it, you can pre-order the album through PRC Music’s Website, and through Bandcamp here. Be sure to follow the band over on the Replicant Facebook Page.
