Hey there Tech-fiends! Man it's been a pretty good season for tech-death recently, and it's a Gorguts year to boot! I've really been loving some of the more recent tech-death releases such as the new Entheos- The Infinite Nothing, The Zenith Passage- Solipsist, the Deviant Process- Paroxysm record I helped premiere here, and many more! There's also an exciting new tech-death supergroup called Virulent Depravity that just dropped a new brain scrambling new song yesterday on youtube. For those new to them, Malcolm Pugh (Entheos/Inferi/A Loathing Requiem) joined the band on 2nd guitar after most of the music was written by guitarist/bassist/vocalist Colin Butler. But Malcolm did add leads and solos throughout. Accompanying on drums is none other than Kevin Paradis of nasty black/death extremists Svart Crown and also Melechesh and Benighted.
Having heard rough versions of most of the Virulent Depravity material, I can confidently say this album is going to blow people the fuck away! Malcolm Pugh and Mike Low's (Inferi) label, Artisan Era Records, will be releasing Fruit Of The Poisoned Tree By Virulent Depravity through their label. Like I've mentioned in previous editions, part of why I wanted to do this series was to highlight older less recognized albums that are really sick. So that's what today's edition is themed around. Hope you find something you dig! If you want to check out prior editions to this series you can do so here.
The Shattering- The Shattering Begins
Don't let the butterfly adorned artwork fool you, The Shattering are about as deadly and ferocious as tech-death gets. I've been jamming their debut album, The Shattering Begins, yearly for a long time now. If you're a fan of Spawn Of Possession, you'll be very pleased with this 2005 album by Swedish natives The Shattering.
While its quite obvious that the music is very indebted to Spawn Of Possession, it still frequently displays a unique bevy of catchy and memorable parts in every song amid the flurry of finger-cramping riffing, tremendous blasting, and demented vocals. I'd also say there's a bit of Necrophagist type riffing to some of this as well. Sometimes I check to see if something's been covered at Metal-Injection before covering something, and noticed that MI's own Frank Godla wrote a post about them five years ago! Unfortunately, the band has been broken up for some time, and The Shattering Begins is their only record. It's one hell of a swansong, and a tech-death record that I'll forever cherish.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_KZRlgBwU&list=PL99D49D6FC72B2111&index=1[/youtube]
Anomalous – Ohmnivalent
Although a fair number of hardcore tech-death devotees know Anomalous, they could hardly be considered to be a household name when people think of god-tier technical death metal. But obviously I know that when we discuss technical death metal, that there are going to be plenty of people who will know and love this record already. So clearly the reason for posting it is to spread the word for anyone who hasn't heard their 2011 debut full-length, Ohmnivalent. Hailing from San Francisco, California, Anomalous deliver a tech-death experience unlike any other. It's almost a cybernetic and mechanical version of technical death metal, mixed with a Meshuggah influenced poly-rhythmic groove dimension and a big helping of prog and beautiful melody. Even if it's not your thing, you can't dismiss the expansive and dense ambitiousness of the songs on Ohmnivalent. This is truly impressive stuff, even by tech-death standards.
If you've never heard this one, be sure to give a listen below. Several members of Anomalous play in a super sick side project called Ontogeny as well. You can check them out over on Bandcamp. Oh, and I should mention that maniacally cyborg death metal drummer Marco Pitruzzella (Neurogenic, ex-Brain Drill, live drummer for Sleep Terror, and Six Feet Under, etc) is the drummer on this album and lays down a mindbogglingly dexterous performance throughout the record. Ohmnivalent is truly an underground classic that deserves to be praised. Check it out and see what you think!
