Archspire — The Lucid Collective
Archspire is part of a new heavily classically inspired wave of technical death metal first indicated a few years ago by bands like Obscura and Necrophagist. I have heard them compared to Braindrill, and while the percolating, sweep heavy guitar playing is similar, this band's sound is much more melodic and coherent. "The Lucid Collective" is their second album, following "All Shall Align" in 2011.
The tendency towards colorful arpeggiated sweeps, shout-along breakdown sections and cinematic emotionality harkens to the fiercely intense but perhaps too gushingly adolescent music created by Veil of Maya and Born of Osiris in the 'progressive deathcore' realm. Archspire incorporates the ubiquitous melody and brightness of those bands into their sound without reaching that kind of tearjerking sentimentality.
This album immediately impresses with amazingly clean production and an unreal level of nimble, effortless fast musicianship. It is safe to say that bands like this have pushed the level of technicality in this genre far beyond even what it was in the 90's, and yet they do so with a great deal more melody and diversity than most of the classic bands. In the 90's, death metal guitar playing tended to be muddy & indistinct in tone, and limited to the lower registers of the instrument, in spite of the virtuosity required to play it, and the true musicality of bands such as Suffocation went unnoticed by many. Listening to this, the full register of each instrument is utilized, and the complex tonalities used immediately obvious.
Of course, this all could have turned out quite masturbatory. Good songwriting is what ultimately makes this album a fantastic listen. The structures are whimsical, with lots of space, and many unexpected and brief pauses. There is a sense of absurdity and playfulness to this album - the mood is very upbeat if you ask me. With each idea, there is a sense it was tried for the sheer audacity of it, and I appreciate that. The impossible 'turn around in the space of a dime' control this band has allows them to make even the oddest parts strangely groovey. It reminds me of the time I saw Steve Smith / Vital Information live, and he managed to get the entire crowd counting in 15/8. The most bizarre ideas can come off as expressive and fully formed, if they are correctly executed as they are here.
Of note is the vocalist's highly rapidfire throat control, his confidently rhythmic delivery has an almost hip hop quality at times. In the first minute of "Fathom Infinite Depth", I had the sense the band was following the pulse set by the vocalist, surely a first for a death metal album. He enunciates so clearly that even at breakneck speed, the lyrics are easily discernable.
The album cover is beautiful, with an illuminated transparent blue humanoid figure in the center, in which one can see the outlines of muscles and veins. The figure is surrounded by a beautifully contrasted torrential landscape in a deep pinkish red. Though it uses what one could say is an established drawing style and coloring for a gothic/metal album and , it is not outwardly morbid or cliched, and wonderfully multi-interpretable; potentially spiritual, and symbolic of the struggle.
If you've always related to the manic energy of death metal, but not the darkness or violent themes, albums like this may be the perfect development to the genre for you. In my case, I loved that music, but I love this music as well. This band is breathing much needed new life into technical death metal, and showing that there is plenty of room left for exploration. I am utterly baffled that any human could play this way, and thrilled to hear that people in possession of such abilities are using them to explore such inventive and psychedelic ideas. I will be listening to this album many times in the near future, and investigating their previous LP from 2011.