Do a lot of people know about Cognizance, the UK/Austria based death metal band? And if so, do they know the music, or do they know the name by way of the supremely odd and silly cover art for 2023’s Phantazein? Admittedly it was the art that drew my eye to the band in the list of endless promos we get, but it was the music (and Zyklonius’s Second Circle review) that kept me engaged and ultimately landed the album on my Honorable Mentions list. Now here we are with In Light, No Shape, sporting a slightly less “WTF?!” cover. Nothing else has changed, thankfully: the group once again delivers searing, technical death metal that retains groove and rhythm without sacrificing that locked-in precision across 37 minutes of progressive death.
It takes a little bit to get there, though. Opener “Transient Fixations” feels more like an extended intro than an actual song, despite the near three-minute runtime and lyrics. It’s a barrage of angry riffs that spill into “Inflection Chants” which tightens the reins just enough to bring Congnizance’s strengths into focus in time for the killer “A Game of Proliferation.” I’m not the biggest djent fan out there, but the way drummer David Diepold locks in with his bandmates brings a ferocity and precision to the song that is not just a stuttering series of open down-tuned chugging, and more a sinister syncopation of death.
It’s that kind of technicality that really gets me for this kind of music. It continues on “Chasm” and I’m reminded of how for music like this drumming is everything. I hate when bands use cymbals for nothing but a continuous clang of noise, but across In Light, No Shape cohesion and intent is key, and nothing across the album (that intro maybe excepted) feels extraneous or there to simply be loud. All props to Archspire who also put out a pretty great and crazy technical death metal album1, but this is more the speed and song construction my addled brain can get behind.
As Cognizance wind into the second half of In Light, No Shape the songs continue to charge forward without fat or filler. “Vertical Illusion” rolls into “A Reconfiguration” and the two show the strength of Cognizance’s songwriting, as tracks like “Subterranean Incantation” and “Induced Contortions” show the group adding a layer of accessibility that doesn’t diminish the brutality of the riffage.
I may never know what that odd little fellow was doing on the side of the Phantazein cover, but at least I know with In Light, No Shape I got another killer death metal album.
— Chris
In Light, No Shape is available now from Willowtip Records. For more information on Cognizance, check out their Facebook page.
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