Hello, and happy Wednesday! Just a quick reminder all other editions of Extreme of the Extreme can be found HERE! Now without further adieu, on with the show!
When you look at tech-death, a few specific bands come to mind right? You have the absolute over the top insanity of a band like Origin. Maybe you think of the old school, the original tech-death bands like Suffocation. These days if you're into the genre, most people will cite Alterbeast as their first experience.
Alterbeast has turned into a sort of breeding ground for tech-death fans and musicians alike, with so many musicians coming out of the band going on to create some of the best there is of the genre. For instance, Flub (ex-vocalist) dropped one of the best releases of 2019, and Wastewalker (ex-vocalist) did the same in 2016. This year though, this new decade, Symbolik (featuring ex-Alterbeast guitarist Allen Burton) release their debut album Emergence and it's already shaping up to be one of the strongest releases of the year. That's a tall order when you consider the albums that are meant to be coming out this year.
Now yes, sure, Symbolik started in 2010-2011 time and released an EP. Fans of that release will be happy to know the core concepts of the band are still intact. Nearly a decade down the line though, and with a ton of new experience, it's not exactly surprising to anyone that the band have made some significant improvements in their musicianship. The first taste of music off Emergence that we have is "Invoking Oblivion".
It's not very common you can call tech-death catchy, but the riffs in "Invoking Oblivion" are the closest you'll get to an "earworm" in this genre. Nothing overly difficult, nothing overly intense, quite close to the perfect song to show someone trying to get into tech-death actually. The riffs are catchy, and to someone as bad at guitar as myself, seem difficult, but not for the sake of it. Everyone knows those songs that sound like they're made harder just because they can and not because they should. One thing that "Invoking Oblivion" does do is a trope that I've only noticed recently in tech-death.
Similar to deathcore's need for four crashes before the breakdown, tech-death likes to remove all distortion from the guitars and slow down the instrumentals significantly. All right before the guitars break into a very busy sounding sweep solo. And sweep they do.
Welcome to 2020 with the debut album from Symbolik. If you're looking for something new, or just trying to get into tech-death and need a starting point, there aren't many better than "Invoking Oblivion". This is just the first taste of Emergence, which comes out on April 10th The Artisan Era.
