Tech Death Thursday: Serpentspire
Uh oh. Purple spacey shit in the header image? A jagged-but-readable band logo? It’s the day of the week that begins with a T that isn’t Tuesday? This can only mean one thing. Prepare to have your brains drilled, your Kennedys veiled, and your monoliths, er, deathculted. It’s Tech Death Thursday.
Before we get to the prime weedly-deedlies, here’s some news concerning secondary weedly-deedlies:
-Up-and-comers Virial have posted a drum playthrough for “Doctrine of Genesis,” appearing on their upcoming debut album. If you like what you hear, help them fund it right here.
–Abhorrent have announced a Fall release window for their new album, “Intransigence.” Check out an instrumental version of “The Elegance of Asymmetry,” also in drum playthrough format.
–Lokyata have released their final album. Join me in totally-not-sarcastically mourning the tragic loss of a tech-deathcore band here.
–A Loathing Requiem, aka Malcolm Pugh, aka that guy from Inferi, has a new album coming July 31st. I personally find this side project to be vastly superior to the main band. Decide for yourself with “Prismatic Delusion” and “Immaculate Machine.”
-The good people at Heavy Blog Is Heavy are streaming Kronos’ newest in full. It’s rill gud.
This week’s offering comes from Serpentspire, not to be confused with that one other tech death group with “spire” in their name (I forget what they’re called). Though these newcomers took their name from an Alterbeast song, they sound nothing alike. Whereas Alterbeast approaches the genre in a more traditional sense (think Necrophagist), Serpentspire like to explore the extreme ranges of their instruments. It’s this approach that draws me into the music so much; you go from high-flying arpeggios one second to thick chugging riffs the next in a tug-of-war of frequencies. The midrange is utilized for spidery, angular riffs, and this is largely where the “tech” aspect of their sound comes from. Yes, there are sweeps and tapped leads and what have you, but they largely take a backseat to the riffs themselves. The fact that they worked their virtuosity into the songwriting instead of placing it at the forefront of each song shows they’ve already mastered the genre and makes The Cosmic Throne one hell of a debut EP.
The Cosmic Throne just dropped on the 7th. If you like what you hear, give Serpentspire a like on their Facebook and toss a couple bucks their way on Bandcamp.
That’s all for this week. Until next time,
