I think I’ve learned my lesson… when 20 Buck Spin releases a sci-fi thrash album — especially from a power trio — it’s best practice to sit your ass down and listen. From the Francophone province best known for maple syrup and technical metal comes the sophomore album from Canadian death thrashers Dissimulator. Slightly easing off the tech death pedal in favor of a more polished take on the tech thrash side of their sound this time around, the trio have assembled an album as fun as it is challenging in Artifice Dissolves.

If you need any clear indication of the caliber of musicianship Dissimulator are capable of unleashing, just take a look at all the other bands the members are in (most of whom within the greater Tougas-verse). Drummer Philippe Boucher is in tech death titans Beyond Creation in addition to masterminding Incandescence, bassist Antoine Daigneault is in Exxûl as well as Atramentus along with vocalist/guitarist Claude Leduc, and all three are in Chthe’ilist. For the uninitiated, that’s essentially all the top Québécois bands of the modern era. So what does that mean for this project? A hell of a lot of riffs; equal parts catchy and technical, crushingly heavy and razor sharp. Leduc deftly moves between palm-muted chugs, disorienting pich harmonics, and fretboard-spanning arpeggiated wizardry with ease; one moment you’re banging your head like the drunkest pizza thrasher at a local show, the next you’re dumbfounded by the speed, precision, and synchronicity the trio lock into on tracks like “Neon Metropolis” and “Robostrobos.”

While there might be less identifiable death metal on Artifice Dissolves when compared to Dissimulator’s 2024 debut Lower Form Resistance, tracks like “Alloyed” put that notion to the test. Blast-driven tech chaos (a recurring theme with the “death” aspects of the album), or that track’s closing groove that provides a devastatingly Colored Sands-ian respite from the bouncy thrash. And for those of you that find clean prog jams in their technical metal to be a momentum-killer, rejoice! Aside from the intro of “Propioceptor” and the following interlude track “Dusk,” Artifice Dissolves is pretty much a non-stop assault of tight, staccato riffage. As a massive lover of last year’s Changelings myself, I could’ve used a bit more of this; Dissimulator on the other hand are all metallic business. And speaking of metallic, Leduc’s mechanical guitar tone and Daigneault’s rumbling bass truly give the album a feeling of impending robotic apocalypse, like their instruments have been injected with a liquefied T-1000.

Dissimulator playing to their strengths and knack for tremendous tech thrash seems to have paid off in spades. There’s quite a lot to take in on Artifice Dissolves, but for every moment of mind-numbing technicality there’s some killer groove that proves that this genre I had long dismissed is far from dead. Thrash metal, I owe you an apology. I was unfamiliar with your game. Labelmates Species and Dissimulator are lighting the way towards fantastic horizons as ambitious as they are familiar, leaving all the worthless ’80s rehash bands in the dust.

— Colin

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Artifice Dissolves will be available October 2 through 20 Buck Spin. For more information on Dissimulator, check out their Facebook and Instagram pages.