Hey there, tech fiends. It's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual weekly reminder that if you're looking for even more sick bands to hear, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
If extreme metal offers anything that is often universal for its listeners, it’s an odd form of catharsis derived from its absurdity, aggression, and bleakness. This is a form of coping with reality in my opinion, created through breaking all of what sucks and happens in life into something so fucked up that it circles back and becomes exhilarating and positive.
I guess that’s a way of saying one of my favorite dissonant brutal-minded tech-death bands is back with a new banger. I first covered the New York City-based wrecking crew Thætas back in 2016 when their initial demo dropped. Recently on June 26th, the band dropped their new album, Shrines To Absurdity through Maggot Stomp. It’s not only a release that eerily embodies its title in visceral form, it’s some of the best technical brutal death metal with a dissonant death metal focus around right now.
Gazing back at how I discussed them in 2016, I described them at the time as being something akin to “Malignancy, Gorguts, and Defeated Sanity crafting music together in a graveyard, this is noxious yet intriguing music.” That still holds true when it comes to the new music as a reference point for newcomers but this is far more advanced and adventurous material on their 2020 album. On Shrines To Absurdity, the group has really elevated their capabilities, refining their controlled chaos tendencies and increasing the unpredictability within how each and every song twists and turns into something that's oddly beautiful to hear.
As I’m often fond of saying, the best stuff I continually come back to is usually from groups who combine an eclectic approach with a unique songwriting and unorthodox song structure angle to maximal effect. All of these things are where Thætas excels, although I could easily go on for much longer when it comes to breaking down how brilliant and next-level Shrines To Absurdity is. If you haven’t checked the album out below, it’s embedded via Bandcamp and can be ordered here and here. You can also follow the group over on the Thætas Facebook Page.
