(written by Islander)
Occasionally some of us play a mind game in which we imagine how people who know almost nothing about metal would interpret words and phrases we throw around about the music on a daily basis. Like, how would they interpret “tech death”? The possible or hoped-for demise of Silicon Valley? AI reaching its Skynet moment and promptly deciding to wipe out humanity? Some slang term for the precise definition of when a person has expired, even if they might still be breathing?
And yet there are also occasions when the “tech death” label may not really mean what even we think it means, or at least when it falls short in some way. Which brings us to the Montréal band Volubilis.
It’s convenient to label them a “tech death” band, and that label might be better than any other single genre descriptor if you had to choose just one, but it also falls short. Among other things, it tells you nothing about the rather spectacular nature of the tale encompassed by the band’s recently released debut album Theasterion.
L-R – Shawn Hillman (Fretless bass) | Miguel Marcheterre-Pina (Guitar) | André Dubien (Vocals)
Photo Credit – Jade Weeles & Miguel Marcheterre-Pina
To summarize the tale, Theasterion is a sweeping sci-fi concept album that chronicles humanity’s desperate attempt to survive after Earth becomes uninhabitable. The narrative follows a colony of 11.3 million inhabitants living on a satellite orbiting the planet Theasterion until the appearance of a mysterious monument (The Prism) reveals a prophecy foretelling the supernova of the nearest star, Unukhalai. In the band’s words:
“The revelation fractures the colony, igniting political upheaval, a coup d’état, and a desperate expedition to the hostile planet below. There, the explorers encounter the
Homo Cumulus, a non‑linear anthropoid species evolved beyond human comprehension. As tensions rise and resources collapse, humanity faces extinction long before the cataclysm arrives.”
Each of the album’s six tracks is a chapter in this unfolding narrative. What we have for you today is the premiere of a lyric video for the album’s final song, “Unukhalai Supernova“. Lyrically, it depicts the cataclysmic event toward which the narrative has been building, as seen through the eyes of a single human witnessing the collapse of their world. At one level it’s horrifying, and yet, as the observer contemplates their own impending extinction, they have other reactions:
“A new nebula is about to form, solace found in this planetary termination.
In a realm of splendor, devoid of time, dreamscape of the scornful, antimatter.”
Such a literally explosive and life-extinguishing event demands explosive music, and Volubilis are more than up to the task. As the band’s founder Miguel Marcheterre‑Pina describes it: “Unukhalai Supernova is the ultimate climax of the album. I like to think of it as if Archspire meets Hans Zimmer. It features some of our most complex riffs and segments, plus real strings that immerse the listener in the epic finale of the record.”
Musically, the song is indeed a technically very impressive spectacle. The pacing is fast, the fretwork nimble and delirious, the drumming constantly changing and sharply executed. As noted above, the song also includes the work of a string section (Shawn Hillman and Michelle Gao), whose brightly dancing and darting neoclassical melodies rival the exhilarating performances of the guitars and fretless bass. Meanwhile, the harrowing lyrics are ejected in a blend of savage, barking growls and frantic screams, which might be the most frightening aspect of the experience.
Indeed, while the event that’s the subject of the song is catastrophic, the music is so exuberant, so elegantly wild, that it sounds jubilant (which might not be completely surprising, given that the observer seems as astonished by the wonder of it all as they are stricken by the terror of it).
Yet as the song approaches its mid-point the music’s wildness gives way to a more mesmerizing, yet still elegant, phase in which the strings continue to play prominent roles. As the song’s intensity begins to ramp up again, a bass solo leads the way, joined by baritone singing in tandem with the blackened screams, and ultimately by brightly dancing classical keys and fretwork that’s both sharply angular and fluidly swirling.
The song is a head-spinning experience from beginning to end, and while it’s not wrong to think of the music as tech-death, that label doesn’t adequately foretell the extent to which Volubilis embroider their music with neoclassical, progressive, and cinematic elements, or how deeply involved the melodies are in the midst of the technical pyrotechnics.
While a supernova like the one here is a particularly devastating catastrophe, it is still a cosmic spectacle that has few if any rivals, and it’s the wondrous spectacle of the event that this song seems to capture even more so than its vast destructive impact on what’s left of humanity.
VOLUBILIS is:
Miguel Marcheterre-Pina: lead guitars, rhythm guitars, composition, production concept, artwork, lyrics
Jacob Collins: Drums
Shawn Hillman: Fretless bass
André Dubien: Vocals
Theasterion was mixed and mastered by Mitchi Dimitriadis, and it’s recommended for fans of Beyond Creation, Vale of Pnath, Obscura, First Fragment, and Ne Obliviscaris. It’s available for streaming and download via the links below:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/volubilis1/theasterion
https://volubilisband.bandcamp.com/album/theasterion
FOLLOW VOLUBILIS:
https://www.instagram.com/volubilisband
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093419962099