technical death metal

Album Review: Contrarian — “Sage of Shekhinah”

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Contrarian - Sage of Shekhinah

Where does an album get their genre descriptor from? And who has the authority to give an album, and the band who created the album in the first place, said genre descriptor? If anyone has listened to both prog death and tech death long enough, you’ll notice there is a fine line between both genres, especially when their descriptions become subjective to the listener. Casting the finer points of metal music vernacular aside, the reason for this thought was that Contrarian’s fifth album, Sage of Shekhinah, straddles the line between the experimental nature of prog death and the technical instrumentation of tech death. Let’s discuss.

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Album Review: Gorod — “The Orb”

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Gorod - The Orb

I can’t say any better about Gorod than Buke (who *claims* he’s not good with written words, but we can all see that’s modesty at the very least) already did in the interview that went up very recently: there’s a huge difference between “tech death” and “technical death metal”.  Tech death does indeed imply wankery for its own sake (and this is coming from someone who is unabashedly a fan of wankery for its own sake), whereas technical death metal is grounded in the foundations of death metal.  On The Orb, Gorod ponders the meaning of both, and how to effectively split the difference to double down on what makes them so great.

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Gorod’s Julien “Nutz” Deyres on their new album “The Orb” and much more!

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Image courtesy of Pierre Wetzel

Metal fans know the difference when categorizing a band as tech death versus technical death metal. But, for those unaware, the former implies a bunch of noodling and wankery just because it can be done while the latter implies an actual gift for the technical side of death metal. And that’s precisely where you can find France’s Gorod as they’ve been cranking out extremely “technical death metal” now for over 25 years. The Orb, their seventh full length, finds them at their best; mind-bendingly technical, more brutal than ever in their attack, and quite possibly some of the best songs the band has ever written. Buke recently had the chance to chat with vocalist Julien “Nutz” Deyres about the new album, how it came to be, and many other topics. We now bring you this conversation in its entirety so grab your beverage of choice, a seat, and enjoy.

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Album Review: Kurushimi — “Return III: Death”

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Kurishimi - Return III Death

Return III: Death is the third part in the Return series from Australian noise masters Kurushimi. Each prior entry in the series saw the band revisit a song from their self titled debut. Return III is no different. Here, the band revisits the track “Shinigami.” The result is a transformative work not just for the song but the band as well.

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Oleg Zalman of Artificial Brain on their new album and much more!

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New York’s Artificial Brain are somewhat of an anomaly in the death metal world. Sure they’re rooted in death metal but in the blink of an eye can cover tech-death, progressive death, jazz, and noise like world class pros. Their debut Labyrinth Constellation was like stepping on a landmine of infinite sounds and follow up Infrared Horizon saw them branch out a bit and experiment with obtuse and jagged rhythms and melodies that absolutely should not go together but somehow it all just gelled. And now with their third full length, a self-titled one, it seems they’re out for blood. It’s a bit more on the death metal nose but more angular and aggressive than before. Definitely one that should be on your radar. Buke recently sat down with guitarist Oleg Zalman to dig into the ethos of the new album and of the band and how it all came together. We now bring you this conversation in its entirety so grab your beverage of choice, a seat, and enjoy.

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