Archspire — Relentless Mutation
Archspire's style tends toward melodically sophisticated, theory-derived scalar sweeps and sinuous palm muted chugging played at breakneck speed, with a strong melodic sensibility running through each riff and song. As such, they sound similar to Necrophagist or Obscura. It is a classically influenced style of death metal, yet never strays too far into the melodrama of power metal or Swedish melodeath.
There is an unpredictability to the rhythms and structures that is playful and entertaining. The band will groove on a riff for a satisfying length of time only to lurch into an abrupt pause, followed by a triplet stab, followed by a tempo change, et cetera. It is the strong internal logic of the songs which sets them apart from other bands, the feeling that each section was carefully considered, the clever reprisal of melodic themes.
The guitarist's touch is so light that the blindingly fast movements seem effortless, more playful than aggressive. Indeed, the entire band's musicianship is so agile as to feel unreal. The bass performance is one the most impressive I have ever heard. I can't imagine playing licks like this cleanly even for a couple of bars, let alone an hour long live set. It is metal in fast forward.
Another distinctive feature of the band is the almost rap-like high speed vocal delivery, piercingly rhythmic and forcefully enunciated, chopping 32nd notes growls in which some (not all) of the many words are clearly audible. At times, it seems the rhythm guitar parts may have been structured around the words, accentuating and punctuating certain phrases. Like the rest of the band, the vocalist has ridiculous speed and stamina.
Highlights of the album include the beautiful tapped bass outro of title track "Relentless Mutation". This is the perfect example of the haunted, foresty feeling the melodies evoke, some kind of ghost of Scandinavian folk metal stylings, but without many actual clean sections. Instead, even the heaviest sections are dripping with colorful tunefulness.
The production is top notch, chunky and powerful at high volumes yet dynamic and full of breathing room, hardly fatiguing in any way. The only complaint I could have is that the drumming could be a bit sharper.
The melodies and emotions of the songs seem to flow naturally on this album, despite the absolutely absurd level of technicality. The guitar writing here is truly peerless, with the entire album feeling like a unified symphonic development. Though there are many notes, there is no gratuity or excess. No genre switching just for novelty's sake, overtly progressive cheese or bloated running times. This 30 minute album is absolutely complete and almost infinitely replayable. I really can't fully describe its mejestic excellence. I've personally have been enjoying this groovy, melodically accessible approach to death metal a great deal more than the mirthless, dreary affect of the many black metal inspired tech death bands these days.