{"id":70326,"date":"2017-08-24T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-08-24T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=70326"},"modified":"2017-08-24T07:15:27","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T12:15:27","slug":"tech-death-thursday-beneath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/tech-death-thursday-beneath\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech Death Thursday: Beneath"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>Beneath<\/strong> is back and they&#8217;re conquering the galaxy. Tech death in spaaaaaaace!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Tech support:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Order of Diptera<\/strong> just released a new song, and my initial misreading of its title led me to believe it was centered around a cabal of rodents riding public transportation. Check out &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TxRlYyaYKtY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ordo Est Vermibus<\/a>&#8221; if you&#8217;re into ugly <strong>Abhorrent<\/strong>-style tech,\u00a0and look for the band&#8217;s debut full-length next year on The Artisan Era.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Inanimate Existence<\/strong> <em>Underneath a Melting Sky<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CkOjSfWBYKU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">full stream here<\/a>. No more needs to be said.<\/li>\n<li>We&#8217;ve got another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qfgdOAAEBIQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new song<\/a> from <strong>Archspire<\/strong>, and it puts everything else they&#8217;ve done to shame. Besides the even more ludicrous\u00a0technical panache on display here, it&#8217;s easily their best composition to date. Don&#8217;t sleep on this one.<\/li>\n<li>Melodic tech death band\u00a0<strong>Dessiderium<\/strong> has a new single up on their <a href=\"https:\/\/dessiderium.bandcamp.com\/track\/streaks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bandcamp<\/a>, and it&#8217;s super happy. Give &#8220;Streaks&#8221; a listen if you think tech death needs more songs in major keys.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Walking Dead Orchestra<\/strong> sounds like they should be AMC&#8217;s private music group for the eponymous show, but the music might be a bit heavier than what they&#8217;re looking for. Also, calling a five-piece death metal outfit an &#8220;orchestra&#8221; is stretching it just a little bit. In any case, they&#8217;ve got a <a href=\"https:\/\/uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com\/album\/resurrect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new song<\/a> out and a new album on the way for October 13th. Give that a listen if you want some deathcore that doesn&#8217;t suck.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"400\" height=\"100\" src=\"http:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/album=1483000409\/size=venti\/bgcol=FFFFFF\/linkcol=4285BB\/\" style=\"position:relative;display:block;width:400px;height:100px;\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>The news of a new\u00a0<strong>Beneath<\/strong> album brought me both surprise and excitement; surprise because I somehow forgot they existed, and then excitement when I remembered how great their last album was.\u00a0Their sound on 2014&#8217;s\u00a0<em>The Barren Throne<\/em> was similar in a lot of ways to the dearly departed\u00a0<strong>Kronos<\/strong>, a more technical take on the Italian &#8220;Always Be Blasting\u2122&#8221; style of death metal. What set them apart was their penchant for counterpoint; even at <em>Throne&#8217;s<\/em>\u00a0lowest points, the guitars were almost always performing distinct parts from each other, making for a much more compelling listen than the rote passages of many similar acts. As a lot of these bands don&#8217;t really change over time, I settled in for some more speedy modern death metal and hit play.<\/p>\n<p>That was not at all what I got. Beneath set out to improve on\u00a0<em>Ephemeris<\/em>, and it shows. The basic principle of &#8220;speed+counterpoint=success&#8221; is still largely intact, but even that is approached differently and with a greater degree of complexity.\u00a0<em>Throne&#8217;s<\/em> songs moved along at a near-constant sprint and could be a bit of a tiring listen as such.\u00a0<em>Ephemeris<\/em> is much more measured and well-paced; those stretches of tremolo picking aren&#8217;t gone, but they don&#8217;t form the baseline of every song anymore. Even songs such as &#8220;Guillotine&#8221; that are built on these parts are supplemented by huge, meaty grooves and haunting dissonant chords. The tremolo parts themselves tend to move around a bit more, too, and they do it without sounding like they&#8217;re simply trying to make it more complex. There&#8217;s thought and direction behind each passage, and nothing overstays its welcome.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_85490\"  width=\"320\" height=\"240\"  data-origwidth=\"320\" data-origheight=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-Pt0HOBGn8M?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=1&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All of this results in succinct yet well-developed songs that feel like a mixture of\u00a0<strong>Wormed<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Immolation<\/strong>, with the uncompromising heaviness of the former\u00a0and the complexity and overall character of the latter. There are some other surprises scattered throughout that tie in with the album&#8217;s sci-fi galactic colonization themes as well. &#8220;Cities of the Outer Reaches&#8221; combines low-tempo polyrhythms, shifting time signatures, and odd chords and harmonies for a suitably alien feel, and the constantly morphing &#8220;Constellational Transformation&#8221; and &#8220;Medium Obscurum&#8221; will be enough to satisfy both the biggest death metal purists and prog nerds.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ephemeris<\/em> is surprisingly dense given its concise run time of 36 minutes. It&#8217;s packed from start to finish with all kinds of ideas and nary a moment of filler or downtime. If there&#8217;s room for improvement anywhere, it&#8217;s in the production. To be sure, it doesn&#8217;t sound bad- everything is crisp and clear, and it&#8217;s not too hard on the ears- but more organic production would do wonders for it. I\u00a0can&#8217;t help but imagine what\u00a0<em>Ephemeris<\/em> would sound like if it got the\u00a0<em>Starspawn<\/em> treatment, though; the music is perfect for it, and I hope they go in that direction on the next record. Regardless, the music is ultimately what counts here, and it more than makes up for any production woes. It&#8217;s an all-around good death metal album; check this one out even if tech death isn&#8217;t your go-to. You&#8217;ll probably find yourself enjoying it.<\/p>\n<p><em>Epehemeris<\/em> is out now, available at Unique Leader&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com\/album\/ephemeris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bandcamp<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiemerch.com\/uniqueleader\/band\/beneath\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">web store<\/a>. Go spread the Toilet odor around Beneath&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-Pt0HOBGn8M\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page, too. That&#8217;s all for this time, and as always,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ElAfL9vIyL4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stay Tech<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Do you have a band you would like to see featured? A new release we should keep an eye on? Or maybe you want to do some writing yourself? Then email us at techdeathtovh@gmail.com and make your voice heard!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beneath is back and they&#8217;re conquering the galaxy. Tech death in spaaaaaaace!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":70330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"What lies Beneath the Tech? Thursday, of course! It's TDT with the spaceblasts of Beneath!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[640],"tags":[697,256,259,11084,4008],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/beneath.jpg?fit=710%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}