In my boggling mind, I imagined “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow” to have something industrial, futuristic and perhaps bordering on the apocalyptic about it. Well, extreme metal it is from the French band with elements of the above.
What I did hear was fast moving death metal with enough twists and turns to call it progressive. That’s “Distorted Mass (of Uniformed Matter)”. In fact the posturing and constant search for climax reminded me of Vader. It certainly has that all-embracing fire and darkness. The progression is colourful and incessant with breaks, changes of pace and direction and always intensity. Curiously I heard moments of US rock in there. As the album goes forward, it meatily drops into a pattern of more difficult and technical death metal.
“Legacy of Supremacy” takes us into still murkier territory. A darkened riff provides background to the relentless growls and occasionally flamboyant guitar work. Technically it’s good but even with the shifts it starts to descend into a wall of noise, which is very easy to take for granted. Without pause, the scene descends into the industrial and apocalyptic. There’s even an all-too-brief futuristic and experimental section as if Hawkwind brought themselves up to date, and it gets darker and darker.
“Legacy of Supremacy” marches on. It’s not nice out there. From the depths, the music develops into a death-fired progressive section. The word “relentless” cannot be overused.
Tracks lead into their successors to maintain continuity, so “Reverse Engineering” follows in similarly harsh vein. Epic in its way, it’s got all the right attributes but it grinds on in now familiar fashion. There are occasional moments where I sat up and took notice but like an over-indulgence in anything, it flattens out. The triggering drums continue on “Random Ascension”. The technical work is brighter but it’s not going anywhere now. “Ashes of a New Era” is standard fare and there’s one of those secret tracks, which paradoxically gives us what we’ve been missing – variety of mood. The muffled sounds of horror seem to be coming from a gathering of children in a playground. Distorted and unusual off-range sounds enhance the gruesome experience. There’s a dramatic build-up as the metal winds gather. It’s too little, too late.
There’s nothing essentially wrong with this album and indeed it makes a kind of progress in its technical and sludgy way. To be honest I found it a bit hard going and aimless. At least I can now define “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow”.
(5.5 / 10 Andrew Doherty)
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