Premiere: Cognizance – “A Brain Dead Memoir”
Imagine there’s a clever quip here tying together “cognizance” and “braindead.”
Today, we’ve got some tantalizing tech to tighten up your tepid Tuesday. Cognizance are no strangers to the bowl, having been featured in an early TDT, and with the release of their third full-length just over the horizon, their new singles have been garnering some attention around these parts as well. As my fellow wordsmith Joaquin Stick so succinctly put it: “Cognizance good.” We’re bringing you some more of that goodness today with the premiere of “A Brain Dead Memoir,” the third single from the upcoming album, Phantazein.
Taken on its own, “A Brain Dead Memoir” is a showcase of technical prowess built around a bittersweet melodic motif that takes the spotlight even over the flashy presentation. The interplay between the guitars at the top of its ascending riff creates a subtle harmony that might be surprising in the context of tech death; it’s an indicator how much both the band and the genre have evolved in the past few years. Taken with the other singles, you start to hear the undercurrent of a unified concept that carries throughout the record. All told, this has all the signs of a band that has seriously leveled up their game; any tech death enjoyers will have fun with this, but it’s going to be particularly good to fans of Alustrium and older Inanimate Existence (before they decided being boring was a good career move). Says the band of this song:
A Brain Dead Memoir steps up to be one of the most complex and dare I say ‘technical’ tracks on Phantazein. We wanted this one to be a real face melter while still following the wider themes from record. In particular I’m real pumped how the solo trade off came out, that was a lot of fun to record.
Phantazein releases January 26th via Willowtip
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