This sophomore release by Archspire I feel was rated unfairly. For being a technical death metal act, this release to me hits home with a "B" average. It's blindingly fast and furious and hate in the vocals. All the tracks on here I thought were noteworthy as well as super technical on the guitars/drums. The vocals are wicked as well. Not only do you get deep throat there are some screaming going on as well. The music is just furious. Nothing on here is boring or without significance. There are some milder guitar mixed in here but not extensively. It's enough to give the album variety and poise. This being a second album really is quite an achievement.

They seem to never let-up in intensity except for when they totally want to mellow out in the guitar department. For technical death metal, the music is filled with Archspire hate. I like the rhythm guitars better than the leads, though they were well constructed. The rhythm is filled with fret-board fantastic licks. And the opening track you would expect them to have such fury soon after the intro takes place. There just isn't anything on here that is without precedence. They totally rip the hell out of your speakers or earbuds. What baffles me is that people didn't appreciate this enough to give it a higher rating. I cannot see it being less than a "B" rating. It's so surreal and lucid.

I like the whole package, though the production could havee been a bit better, it still does the album justice. These guys are no amateurs. They know how to construct riffs that are so complex and amazing. The music is the best part of the album as well as the intensity. They really know what they're doing and I should say my favorite tracks are the opening 'Lucid Collective Somnambulation', 'Join Us Beyond', and 'Seven Crowns and the Oblivion Chain'. Really though, all of them I like, it's just those stood out the most with me. Everything just comes together as this 30+ minutes flies right by (or at least for me it did). These guys are highly underrated. You'll hear a supreme genocide on here.

To sum up, Archspire really did a great job of making some extreme music creative with their guitar/drum work. The intensity is high, total headbanger material. They know their music needs to go completely viral. Not too many other technical death metal acts that I know of, but hey, these guys I heard by accident. I was just like "the musicianship is extraordinary here." Check out those songs I mentioned on YouTube or the album is available on Spotify. But do the band justice by buying the physical copy at your local record store. You will not be disappointed. If you are, then you don't appreciate talent like this!

Rating: 8½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
09/02/2018 21:08