Tech Death Thursday: Dysylumn
Walk with me in darkness. This is Tech Death Thursday.
Firstly, the ñews:
- Serocs’s third full-length, And When The Sky Was Opened, has been announced for a November 27th release date. Check out “Itami” for a taste of what’s to come.
- Artificial Brain have been added to the second part of the Indiemerch 10th Anniversary Tour, alongside The Black Dahlia Murder, Goatwhore, Iron Reagan, and Entheos. The full list of dates for both legs of the tour can be found here.
- Avant-garde weirdos Spires of the Lunar Sphere have an album coming September 25th. Check out “4 Bears” and “BERZERKER CLOUD” at their Bandcamp. Brace for chiptunes and squealing guitars.
- Zillah have announced their third album, Serpentine Halo, will be out on October 2nd. Stream “Made Flesh and Bone” over at NCS. If you’ve been interested in skronk but are turned off by the general lack of melody, then this one might be for you.
- If you wish Ovid’s Withering were a little more proggy and a little less child molestery, check out Foreboding Ether’s new track, “Education and Catastrophe.” Dunamis will be available, uh, eventually I guess.
- Asterion, who like ancient Greece almost as much as Kronos, have a new album out via Bandcamp.
- I somehow missed that Sceptic’s full 2015 demo went up last month. Check it out here while I flagellate myself in
ecstasypenance. - Newcomers Fractal Generator have a new song streaming over at NCS. “Face of the Apocalypse” leans more towards the brutal death side of things than tech, but more in a Kronos kind of way than a Visceral Disgorge sort of way. If that sort of thing floats your boat, butters your biscuit, and/or tickles your pickle, then look for Apotheosynthesis on October 2nd. (h/t Jack Bauer)
Don’t let that cover art throw you off; though it’s full of shit flying through space, it’s not purple shit flying through space. Dysylumn got their start as a tribute to a fallen loved one, and their austere origin shows in their music. Their subdued brand of progressive death metal carries a lot of weight, echoing the quieter moments of Gorguts and Anata (“Children’s Laughter” comes to mind) without exactly mirroring them. The overall mood of the album is somewhere between melancholic black metal and doom, but juxtaposed in a tech death setting to surprising effect.
Subtlety is the name of the game on Conceptarium. While most tech death bands create tension by hurling a dizzying array of notes at the listener, Dysylumn do it purely through composition. While there’s almost always motion on one guitar, the other is playing chords or melodies that create a touch of dissonance, just enough to cause some discomfort. For the most part, the riffs on Conceptarium are actually pretty slow, only ever reaching sustained speed on “Cauchemar” and “Réveil.” The drums are the primary driving force here, blasting their frantic desperation under the calm exterior of the guitars.
Of course, all of this would be for naught if the production didn’t match. A super clean approach would dampen the impact significantly; thankfully, they opted not to go that route. The guitars are warm and mellow enough that the dissonant aspects don’t grate against the ears, but have enough crunch that the riffs don’t lose their edge. Though I’m not the best judge of this, but the drums don’t sound overly triggered; if nothing else, they are much less mechanical-sounding than many other tech bands. The vocals are awash in reverb, swelling into earshot but never into focus, always in a haze atop the rest of the instruments. All of these elements come together to form one of the most complete and cohesive albums in the spheres of tech death, and it’s an especially impressive debut album from the French two-piece.
Conceptarium is out now for a measly €5 on Bandcamp. If you like what you heard, stop by Dysylumn’s Facebook and show them some love.
That’s all for this week, and until we meet again:
