Project Description

ARCHSPIRE“Relentless Mutation” (Album Review)

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Archspire are arguably the hottest name in Technical death metal right now. The Canadian’s rise to the forefront of the genre has been relatively quick thanks, in the most part, to their jaw dropping sophomore full-length, ‘The Lucid Collective’ (2014). If The Lucid Collective was the album to put them on the map, then their new album Relentless Mutation is set to firmly establish Archspire as a leading Tech Death band of the last 5 years.

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Archspire

ARCHSPIRE – “Relentless Mutation”

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Sticking with the hallmarks that have served them well to date, Archspire continue to push speed and technicality to levels which are bordering on absurd on Relentless Mutation. The drumming of Spencer Prewett in particular seems to be at odds with what is humanly possible. Oliver Rae Aleron’s vocals are also very, very quick and equally unique. His vocal approach is particularly refreshing in a genre which seems to have little in the way of frontmen/women who can claim to have such an identifiable sound and approach. Dean Lamb and Tobi Morelli shred the be-jesus out of their guitars and Jared Smith melts the frets off his bass throughout. It doesn’t matter which element of the band that you want to focus on, there is some seriously top notch playing on show across the board.

But for all of the technicality and virtuosic elements the appeal of this album and the band in general isn’t as a speed-driven -gimmick, nor is it purely for the ridiculous level of musicianship. Strip it all back and it’s pretty clear to me that Archspire just write some god damn catchy metal music which is equal parts groovy and brutal.

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This album really impresses me – Archspire are almost peerless in the way they write such memorable and musical arrangements without sacrificing their hallmark technicality and speed. I also love the way that Archspire are able to sound modern and fresh – they utilise low tunings, percussive rhythms and a spacy mix/master to sound as relevant in 2017 as any of their peers, but it would be fair to say that they shade the vast majority of these peers for pure class and technicality.

The album has it all – Human Murmuration, Relentless Mutation, The Mimic Well and A Dark Horizontal all have an impressive range of moods and dynamics; ranging from spacey, mellow interludes to full scale brutality. Tracks like Involuntary Doppelgänger, Remote Tumour Seeker & Calamus Will Animate are pretty much full throttle annihilation from start to finish.

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Archspire

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There is no point over analysing this album. Relentless Mutation is a near faultless collection of technical/progressive death metal.

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A standout release and a leading contender for the best metal album you’ll hear this year.

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Reviewer Details

  • Chris Reid