Hey there tech-death fiends, it's that time of the week again! Last week's focus, Enigma, seemed to be a winner to many of you all so I hope that continues with today's early stream of Infinite Density- Recollapse of the Universe. But before we dive into that, here's the usual reminder that you can always peruse all prior editions of this series here.
Just a few months ago in a February edition of Tech-Death Tuesday, we touched on an interesting new Australian instrumental progressive and technical death metal band Vipassi. A group whose rich line-up consisted of several members of Ne Obliviscaris alongside guitarist Ben Boyle from Hadal Maw and A Million Dead Birds Laughing. Out of nowhere just a few weeks ago, another new Australian death metal super merger made itself known, consisting of two members from Vipassi. Only this time the lead role here is Brendan "Cygnus" Brown (Ne Obliviscaris/Vipassi) who wrote all the music and performed all the instrumentation. Joining him on the record for vocal duty is Ben Boyle, though he is probably better known as a guitar player in his other projects in spite of his quite obvious monstrous vocal talent on display here.
Solo albums, especially in the technical death metal realm, rarely sound as good as a full band, but somehow this record is indeed the rare exception to that overall trend. Recollapse of the Universe is not only an inspired and immersive album, but an eclectic one that seems to have no end to its twists, turns, and surprises. Simply put, there is no way to easily peg this as being indebted sound-wise to any one kind of tech-death, nor one era of tech-death for that matter. Recollapse of the Universe resembles a patchwork synthesis of so many different sounds and ideas, yet somehow it never feels unfocused or disjointed in the process of doing so. The music on display is a quite carefully intertwined mix of old school death and tech and new school elements, at times it can sound anywhere from Cynic, to Allegaeon, to Inanimate Existence, and much more.
Comparisons to their other work in Vipassi are there in spots, but think of it like the Vipassi sound is a part of this record, but not the primary focus. Which isn't to say this light and airy infusion to the music doesn't work, because it adds an emotional core to the music here that resonates in your soul beyond its deathly form ravaging your brain . Its almost as if the goal of the music here is to guide you back and forth from frenzy to emotive calm in search of a horizon found only in the minds eye while the music plays. Recollapse of the Universe is quite a fascinating record, one with so much depth to it that its going to take anyone a lot of spins to really crack everything going on here. Infinite-Density- Recollapse of the Universe comes out this Friday, July 29th and can be pre-ordered over at their Bandcamp page. Be sure to follow them on their Facebook page too!
