Bandcamp Picks - The Odious, Inanimate Existence, Atlas Entity, Archaic Decapitator

It's been seven years since The Odious released their last album (which was one of my first Bandcamp Picks, to give you an inkling how long it's been). Vesica Piscis sees the band tweaking their Tool-meets-Opeth approach with percussive discordance and the addition of moog keyboards. Meanwhile, Spencer Linn is showing more confidence and range in his clean singing (though it's just as Layne Staley-ish as in the past). An unpredictable, somewhat uncomfortable listen - all the things progressive metal is supposed to be. [$8]

Five albums into their career, Inanimate Existence have morphed from scrappy prog death upstarts to savvy veterans. Clockwork highlights the California band's maturation as songwriters, shifting without warning from fretburning riffs to palm-muted chugging and jazzy bass-driven interludes. In fact, it may be too mature - the band could benefit by re-injecting the playfulness of their earlier albums. But right now, there's no better standard-bearer of progressive death metal than this band. [$8]



Atlas Entity is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Alex Gallegos and Decrepit Birth drummer Samus Paulicelli. The second installment of a planned trilogy, Beneath the Cosmic Silence uses folky acoustic passages and Gallegos' sombre tenor to bridge the divide between tech death and melodic (dare I say, "cascadian") black metal. A surprisingly clean variation on nature-inspired metal. [$8]



For Connecticut's Archaic Decapitator, keys are the key to separating themselves from the melodic death metal herd. Their latest EP The Apothecary heaps tinkling keyboards over their speedy blast-driven melodies, giving their songs an added dimension. It's amazing how one additional instrument can make a well-trodden genre sound fresh. [$8]

Bandcamp Picks - Inanimate Existence, Beneath, Pyrrhon, NYN

Three albums into their career, Inanimate Existence have delivered their most definitive statement. Whereas previous albums were somewhat fragmented due to an overeagerness to integrate female vocals and jazz parts with the band's djenty origins, Underneath A Melting Sky is their most cohesive and consistent album; the band has refined their style of slow, thoughtful death metal to create songs that improve with every listen. This may be the album that puts their name with Atheist and Cynic; not as disciples, but as equals. [$8]



After their last album, Reykjavík's Beneath seemed poised to be the next big thing in tech death. But Ephemeris takes a step back from the band's fret-burning past, employing more slow grooves and psychedelic interludes to reel the listener in before the blastbeats start falling like hammers. Iceland's flagship death metal act is maturing like fine hákarl. [$9]



NY's Pyrrhon have returned with more compositions of confustication. Despite their mathy reputation, What Passes For Survival isn't lacking for nastiness, built as it is on a foundation of blastbeats and discordance. A messy stew that owes at least as much to Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan as it does to Gorguts and Brutal Truth. [$7.99]



The brainchild of Virginia-based Noyan Tokgozoglu, NYN's ambitious debut is a discombobulating affair. The aptly (if confusingly) named Entropy: Of Chaos and Salt intersperses frenetic tech death with seaboards and theremins, as well as Eastern melodies and percussion. Noyan is similarly eclectic in his vocal performance, ranging from growls to power metal histrionics with Mike Patton-esque abandon. The approach doesn't always work - in particular, the last track "Taken Away By The Tides" feels like being locked in a room with a particularly obnoxious Nintendo fan - but the talent on display is undeniable. [$7]

Hate Eternal, Vital Remains, Black Fast, Inanimate Existence @ Saint Vitus

Pure death metal shows have become a rarity for me - what with living in a clueless theocracy and all. And so even with Deathfest looming, I couldn't turn down a whole night full of the heaviest of heavy metals.

Gorod @ Saint Vitus, 5.19.2013

If Chuck Schuldiner had survived, he would have turned 46 this May. As luck would have it, Gorod and a handful of other tech/death bands on the "Bloodletting North America Tour" played Saint Vitus the week of his birthday. Schuldiner was most responsible for taking death metal from its primitive origins and twisting it into its more progressive and technical forms; it would have been interesting to know his thoughts on the seemingly irreconcilable divide between the current old school revival and prog/tech death. Would "Evil Chuck" side with the kids slavishly devoted to the one-dimensional bludgeon of Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy? Or would Schuldiner the fearless innovator find kinship with those that use his work from Human onwards as a jumping off point to push the style to dizzying new heights?