Premiere: Samskaras – “Reconciliation”
Start the week right with some brand new tech death.
Writing technical music that emotionally resonates with one’s listeners is a delicate art; “subtlety” is not part of many tech death musicians’ vocabularies, and that’s often the key element to making memorable tunes. Granted, there are plenty of bands that do just fine with the spectacle of their musicianship, but the best albums are usually those that we feel some kind of connection to.
That’s what Samskaras aim to do on their new EP, Lithification. The album explores “the struggle between anger and self-control,” per the words of guitarist Eric Burnet, and that conflict permeates the song we’ve got for you today. When it’s not raging outright, “Reconciliation” seethes with an undercurrent of scalding anger, conveyed masterfully with flowing tension in the strings and directed with a surprisingly nuanced drum performance.
Musically speaking, fans of the band’s previous EP will notice a big change in direction. While the core of introspective, melodic tech death is still intact, Lithification draws influence from all over the metal world. You’ll hear traces of black metal and doom throughout “Reconciliation,” as well as the integration of some Travis Ryan-style goblin vocals. It’s easy to get lost the bleak soundscape in as you absorb and process each of its individual components, but it doesn’t skimp on the virtuosity either. Burnet and drummer Alexandre Dupras (of Teramobil and Unhuman notoriety) are an impressive pair of musicians, and they pushed themselves to their limits with this release.
Lithification will be out on October 26th, available soon for preorder on Bandcamp. Keep an eye on Samskaras’ Facebook page for more details.
