The future of Artificial Brain has been pretty nebulous for quite some time, even before their most recent album dropped.  Changes in personnel, scenery, and musical ethos have all played out behind the scenes, and while we knew now-former vocalist Will Smith (no, not that one) was leaving after 2022’s self-titled release, there was more tumult than initially predicted.  How, then, does Antillia, the fourth full-length from the collective, find The Brains some four years later?  Truth be told, and thankfully, mostly the same, but with an extra bit of fire lit under their keisters.

Initially a six-piece multinational conglomerate, Artificial Brain have now consolidated their headquarters nowhere else than Richmond, Virginia, and in doing so have scooped up perhaps one of the biggest in the Richmond scene to take the helm in place of the departed Smith: Mr. Mike Paparo, of Inter Arma fame.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past, like, decade, you should already know that this is a recipe for success; Paparo’s guttural, bestial roar might be different in timbre from Smith’s gurgling warble of a growl, but it blends with the vicious and unconventional nature of Artificial Brain’s music like peanut butter blends with jelly. 

In addition, they’ve also picked up Alex Tomlin of Battlemaster on drums to round out the new lineup, and with that, the new iteration of Artificial Brain is set to take the stage.  Antillia is the shortest release ever by the group, and it also promises to be their most urgent and aggressive by extension.  Lyrically, with the original trilogy penned by Smith concluded, Antillia shows Paparo at the helm of a series of vignettes, tied together with themes of disease and pollution on the planet, inside human bodies and inside the governments that are trusted to look after humanity and its interests.

That urgency is on full display as soon as Antillia begins; “The Wandering Star Prion” is not only a killer song name, it’s also a killer song, rife with frantic blast beats and Pompeo’s trademark roar, all while mainstay guitarists Dan Gargiulo and Oleg Zalman weave in jarring, eerie and unabashedly sci-fi melodies that are the heart and soul of Artificial Brain’s sound, no matter who else is in front of the mic or behind the kit.  Similarly, the title track that bookends the album is a journey of a song, but one that never lets up as it careens from idea to idea, all being supported and egged along by Gargiulo and Zalman’s guitar lines and solos.  Antillia is far from dissonant, but their use of jarring and out-of-left-field notes that provide support and depth to the dread and panic that Paparo is screaming about makes every track on this album feel immediate, immersive, and in the way that all good sci-fi is, relevant despite the fact that this story takes place in the future. 

Of course, part of that immediacy and a huge reason why these songs are as impactful as they are comes courtesy of the one-two engineering combo of longtime collaborator Ian Jacyszyn on the mix and mastering by the one, the only, the actual hardest working man in showbiz, Colin Marston.  The two of them together do an amazing job of highlighting just how punchy and dynamic Antillia is, and it makes listening to all of the craziness that happens in the (relatively) brief runtime a joy to listen to.

Antillia is Artificial Brain firing on all cylinders, and it’s more than just a great metal album; it’s proof that Artificial Brain have not only endured the changes that have been thrown their way, but that they have found a way to thrive in a new environment and make version 2.0 just as impactful as any of their previous work.  They still have a lot more to say, and a lot more stories to tell, and for my money, this version of Artificial Brain does a fantastic job of picking up where they left off and continuing the legacy, without simply aping what came before.

— Ian

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Antillia is available now on Profound Lore Records.  For more information on Artificial Brain, visit their Facebook page.