Hey there tech-fiends, it's that time of the week again! As many of you undoubtedly saw, Spawn Of Possession just dropped a demo teaser clip on Youtube, although they went on to state the new album wouldn't be dropping in 2017. Before we move on to today's focus, here's the usual reminder that if you're looking for more music, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
Theory In Practice – Crescendo Dezign
While they don't get namechecked as often as the very earliest bands who inspired tech-death like Atheist, Death, Gorguts, Cynic, and the like, Theory In Practice are a hugely influential band for the technical death metal genre. Often cited by numerous bands both past and present, the bands forward thinking sound closed the gap between the old school and modern stylings while doing so years before most of the current contemporary crowd. The band was truly far ahead of their time with the sound they had going, and even now, they haven't lost a step creativity wise.
When the band announced a comeback in 2015 with a two song ep, Evolving Transhumanism, I was fucking psyched. So my anticipation for Crescendo Dezign was naturally quite high, and this dense five-song effort by the band doesn't disappoint at all. The band's old school flair is still present in all its slightly thrashy and instantly recognizable Theory In Practice style of riffing and iconic lead playing. Like all of their prior releases, the music on Crescendo Dezign is gracefully supplemented by layers of grandiose prog/symphonic keyboard flourishes that we've come to expect from the band.
As the band stated going into this release, they wanted to spread their wings and slightly augment their sound, which comes in the form of new groove-inflected passages, spurts of clean singing on a few of songs that fit surprisingly well, and some more modern style tech-death riffing and modern style death metal riffing spliced into it the mix. Joining the band on "Cryobiological Expansion" is none other than The Black Dahlia Murder'sTrevor Strnad whose venomous vocal guest spot adds an extra bit of bestial fury to an already rampaging death metal song.
All in all, Crescendo Dezign not only lived up to my lofty expectations for new Theory In Practice music but actually surpassed them due to all the new elements at work here that make the music sound fresh instead of being a mere re-hash of their prior material. If you dig what you're hearing below, the release is available through Itunes here, streamable on Spotify here, and available for purchase on Bandcamp here. Be sure to follow Theory In Practice over on their Facebook page too.
