When you’re into anything for too long you begin to get very grumpy. What would’ve amazed you a couple years ago swiftly fades into the realms of the generic. This has very much been the case for me and Tech Death as a genre. I adore it, and I think that when coupled with my love of Prog there are certainly a lot of similarities. That said though once you’ve heard one Tech band you’ve heard a lot of what the genre has to offer, it becomes increasingly difficult to be stunned, and then there’s Archspire.
These Canadian Tech Death heavyweights have had a deserved and rampant acceleration in recent years. The Lucid Collective may well have established them as a name in the Tech scene but the 2017 Relentless Mutation album is surely the bands absolute tour de force. I fell in love with that album for many reasons and truly I find the band hard to be rivalled when it comes to Tech Death. How do a band follow such a ground-breaking release though? Well, let’s hope Bleed The Future put out through Season Of Mist can show us.
The album could not open in a better fashion. Drone Corpse Aviator has all the usual trappings of Archspire, the sweeping guitars, pinch harmonics and rampant fast paced vocals. Not to mention a good helping of lyrical memorability and some truly emotive and melodic passages. As Golden Mouth Of Ruin continues to prove the band’s worth it becomes very much apparent that they really are a Tech Death band with their own edge. To me they are basically the equivalent of playing any other band at double speed. Oliver Rae Aleron proving also to be one of the Extreme Metal world’s most exceptional contemporary vocalists, how he is capable of the sheer speed and range I have no idea. Abandon The Linear is a song that really amps up the tightness of this marvellous quintet. The bass and drums come alive in this song, Archspire are honestly such a driving force, together they exude influence and aspiration, setting a bar for so many other Tech Death artists of their ilk.
Undoubtedly one of the albums highlights is Drain Of Incarnation, the beautiful melodic introduction is full of impact and Tech prowess. Acrid Canon is much the same, a song where the drums really come alive, super-fast and relentless. This is the sort of song that proves that aside from delicate songwriting Archspire can also be savagely brutal too. I don’t care much for the needless sample at the start of concluding track A.U.M. It seems sleazy on such a regal album but the music within is what really matters. Stunning riffs encircle this entire song, truly a fantastic tune to go out on.
Bleed The Future takes Tech Death and flips it, Archspire prove that you don’t have to write ten minute epics and fifty instrumental tracks to be jaw dropping. No, this band is so much more than that, they take a more traditional approach. Archspire look to Tech Death of old, without so many filler frills and write their music accordingly, encasing their talent within standard length yet vastly impressive tracks. If you only listen to one Tech Death album this year, make it Bleed The Future.
(9/10 George Caley)
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