Death is June - the Zenith Passage : "Datalysium"

 

This Los Angeles progressive death metal, rides the line without being to technical for me. They do this by creating grooves within the math of the sinewy riffs they hit you with. Lyrically you can make out what is being growled , and it is somewhat interesting. The glitchy arpeggiation that is heard in things like the more chaotic forms of djent is used on the second song. But their playing and sense of arrangement still sets it up to be palatable to my ears. Granted I am also a huge Frank Zappa fan so I am up for a challenge as long as their is catchy songwriting involved and not just masturbation. Both the guitar and bas become very rubbery in how they bend around the drums. 

"Lexicontagian" seems to have some interesting perspectives that are going fly right under the radar. When the sung vocals some in things have gone in a more Cynical direction. The have a jazz like precision to their playing I appreciate. "Synaptic Depravation" is like Imperial Triumphant if they were less weird and more into guitar solos. "Deletion Cult" finds the blistering fast technique losing it's luster as the overall sound begins to conform to genre norms. There is tighter syncopation to "Divinertia 1". The bass bounces around how the guitars and drums are locked in.  The dry mid ranged growl could use some variation by this point as the sung vocals have yet to reappear to break things up. The part two of this song does nothing that different, maybe backs off marginally to allow for ambiance. There is a heavier stomp that it builds into, but this is death metal and heavy should always be the expected destination. 

"Automated Twilight" has enough sonic variation to make it interesting. The effects on the vocals leading into the song works well. The sung vocals return but are not as compelling the second time around. The title track that closes the album finds, the synths coming up further forward in the mix, while the rest of the bands stays in line with their mission statement. I will give this album a 9, though it is not what I am going to click on first to listen to when it comes to death metal, I appreciate what they put into this and find this album is everything thing they intended, so fans of technical death metal should eat this up.