100% Support: Also It’s Tech Death Thursday
On May 1st, Bandcamp will once again waive their percentage of proceeds, so that 100% of the money goes directly to the artists. We’ll be spending the week highlighting some releases that you might want to throw money at to help the creators through these shittiest of times.
Aethereus – Absentia
If you’ve spent any amount of time among tech death circles in the past couple years, you’ve probably heard the name Aethereus– I’ve written about them a couple times myself, and Absentia was one of my favorite albums of 2018. It strikes a delicate balance of cerebral and emotional songwriting, crushingly heavy at times and soothing and beautiful at others. It’s technical music with a lot of heart at its core, and it’s been in my regular rotation for the past couple years now.
The reason I’m writing about these guys yet again is because, like so many other bands, they had to cancel a spring tour in the wake of the pandemic. It’s good that bands and fans are reducing potential exposure, but it’s still a pretty hefty financial blow for the acts involved. These guys are very much worth your attention and support; while you’re at it, consider picking up something from their labelmates Symbolik and Flub, who were also part of that tour package.
Sectu – Nefarious
If you like your tech big and heavy, stuff you can really bang that galaxy brain-laden cranium of yours to, look no further than Sectu. Featuring members of C.B. Murdoc and fucking Evergrey of all bands, Nefarious has basically everything you could want from an aggressive tech death album. There are strains of early Obscura in their rapid-fire melodies, and the ominous down-tuned tremolo runs carry traces of both Morbid Angel and Decapitated. There’s more than a touch of grimy dissonant riffing in there, too, and the whole package is delivered with a raw ferocity that few bands can match. Unfortunately, this album came out in 2014, and there’s been no sign of new material in the works that I can find. In any case, you’ll want in on this if you want some good-ass death metal that just also happens to be tech as heck.
Emeth – Aethyr
Continuing along those lines, we’ve got another banger from 2014 that’s in desperate need of a followup. Emeth purvey a sublime combination of spidery melodies and ape-man beatdown riffs like nobody’s business, accompanied by a perpetual stream of blastbeats and some pleasantly crunchy vocals. I tend to shy away from breakdown-oriented stuff (not to say that this is overloaded with them), but they’re paced perfectly here and have enough nuance to keep them interesting. Plus, they just go really fucking fast, and who doesn’t want that? It’s like Aborted, but more technical. What more do I really need to say?
