Tech-Death Thursday: Reprisal
Spear is taking the week off, so I am reprising my role as casual tech-tutor for this week to talk about rising tech-thrashers Reprisal.
But first, let’s check out some tech-gnus.
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- Inferi stream
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- New Unflesh song
and that’s about it for this week.
Now look, I’m writing this a little ahead of time, as when I offered to give our ever-toiling tech-titan Spear a well-earned break from his weekly column he already had planned out a couple of weeks worth of carefully curated content for you, the ravenous horde, to consume. So while this record is (likely) a couple of weeks old now, you can rest assured that due to the sub-genre’s unparalleled use of preservatives, it remains well in date and as fresh as the day it left the studio. That album? Reprisal‘s debut full-length None Survive The Sun.
They’ve set their album embed to begin on the final track ‘Nephila’, which I suppose is as good a point as any to get the gist of what Reprisal are about, but by all means, skip back to the start of the record if you are that way inclined. Honestly, it won’t take more than one track to hear that these young Pommies are the UK equivalent to the razor-sharp riff reactor that is Revocation. However, the quartet recall the period circa 2010 (Existence Is Futile/Chaos Of Forms), when the Dave Davidson & Dan Gargiulo Show were proffering an approach more centred on technical-thrash imbued with peppy pedal-point riffing, anthemic harmonisation, fun-fills, and soulful soloing. Reprisal deftly manage to balance atop that thin line separating a record from being fucking fun, or feeling frivolous. For every air-guitar inducing moment of fret-foolery, there is an equal and opposite moment of serious shred-severity.
So what unique quirk does None Survive The Sun offer to the erudite listener? Well, nothing mind-blowingly new to be brutally honest. But, sometimes that’s not necessarily the most important factor in the listening experience. Sometimes, occupying a niche which has since been vacated can prove just as successful a tact. And Reprisal do just that. In a genre as ridiculously diversified as metal, usurping an empty throne is not something we should automatically frown upon. Moreover, we should strive to laud bands who manage to fill a stylistic void in more than just a satisfactory manner. Since Revocation have progressed from the jazzy tech/thrash path to dip their toes in the death metal pool, Black Fast haven’t released anything new for a long while, Vektor forgot how to thrash went a bit space-opera prog-balls, and most of the other contemporary acts have failed to muster much arousal from the community’s collective weedly-deedly bits, Madrost and now Reprisal are rushing for that particular empty throne. Who will ultimately win? We, the rabid riff consumers.
Bet now you appreciate Spear nearly as much as we do. Send him love letters at techdeathtovh@gmail.com. Make them real saucy.
