SOREPTION: DETERIORATION OF MINDS

Here at NCS, little whispery things nag at the back of our diseased brains. We’re not talking about the transmissions from space — that’s another story. We’re talking about things we’re supposed to remember. Like paying some fucking bill, or feeding the cat, or checking in with the parole officer, or seeing if some new album we wanted to hear has finally been released (because we’re not hot-shit enough for labels to send us advance review copies of everything we’re interested in).

Half the time we don’t remember stuff like this until it’s too late. But sometimes the truly important items break through the cranial fog. Case in point: Soreption. We wrote here about Soreption’s ass-kicking 2008 EP Illuminate the Excessive. And then we wrote two more updates here and here about the band’s progress on their debut album. Guess it’s evident we’re a tad obsessive about this band.

And so earlier this week we remembered that Soreption was supposed to release their debut album in March. We checked, and sure enough — it’s now available (iTunes and Amazon MP3). And now we’ve heard it.

A few days ago, we got immersed in exotically melodic new metal from Romania’s Negura Bunget, and we waxed rhapsodic about its powerful allure. But Soreption’s new album, Deterioration of Minds, isn’t about melody. It’s all about the rhythm. Therefore, we need to change our vocabulary to talk about this carnivorous beast of technical death metal. How about this:

It. Fucking. Rules.

(more after the jump, including a song to stream . . .)

This music shells the sonic landscape like a howitzer barrage. It’s blazingly fast. The tempos dart up and down and sideways like spawning fish fighting to get up-river. The bass and drums and guitars hammer out complex, start-stop rhythms with immaculate precision and shattering force. And the vocals complement the instruments perfectly — a brutally deep, aggressive, staccato barking.

Each song is also marked by a clear guitar solo, enhanced by a reverb effect, that comes as a welcome surprise every damned time and contrasts with the distorted hammering of the combined rhythm section over which it arches like sky-bound fireworks. It’s a very cool combination.

Yes, lots of bands are cranking our modern, technical death metal, attempting to out-do each other (and their forebearers like Necrophagist and Decapitated) with ever more intense instrumental pyrotechnics. Most of them fail at what they’re attempting, or at least fail to create anything you’d want to hear more than once.

But Soreption have managed to tread this path successfully, not only through the precision of their playing but through the competence of their song-writing.  The music has got grooves and compulsive rhythms — and those way-cool contrasting guitar leads. It just makes you want to get up and fucking mosh and headbang and break shit!

The song we’ve selected for you to hear has all the ingredients of a tech-death sing-along anthem, if you can imagine such a thing. Check it out. Just make sure you crank it up reeaallly loud.

Soreption: The Hypocrite, Undying

Oh, what the hell.  You’re bound to have some other shit nearby that needs breaking. So listen to those forebearers, too. You know, to compare and contrast.

Decapitated: Day 69

Necrophagist: Ignominious and Pale