Mother of God…
I think I might have just found the most insane album I’ve ever heard. I’ve dabbled with ‘technical’ metal over the past few years and had the pleasure of seeing Origin live around this time last year with Immolation and Marduk. Known for being at the forefront for ‘technical brutal death metal’ as some may like to classify it, it’s almost insane to think they’ve been doing this for 20 years now. ittedly, the lineup’s been ever changing but for the first time in the history of the band, the same lineup has carried over for two releases (2014’s Omnipresent and this year’s album being the two). So without further ado, let the ‘planet-melting’ riffs commence.
Opening up the album, “Infinitesimal to the Infinite” pulls no punches and launches into a super-speed blast infused assault on the senses. Within about 5 seconds of first hearing the track the media player I was using decided to crash due to the sheer brutality of the song. The song doesn’t give you one minute to find your feet and continues its assault up until the fading guitar sweeps of “Accident and Error” appear, to bring mere seconds of relief before the next wave begins.
Contrary to Origin albums in the past, this album seems to have a lot more variety in the tempo of the songs. Sure they are still at break-neck speed and (John) Longstreth blasts away at the drums like an other-wordly being, but there’s much more than that on display. There’s a method to the madness and to me, that just adds that little extra bit which makes it so much more than just another ‘tech-death’ album.”Truthslayer” and “Dajjal” in particular have little bits within them that help keep things fresh amongst the sea of gravity blasts and tremolo picking.
Now, the monolith that is “Unequivocal”. This thing is one of, if not, the longest songs Origin has ever written. And boy, is it a cracker. I’m almost tempted to say it rivals “Saligia” and “Finite” in of memorability and ‘melo-brutalness’. This song is not just any other technical death metal track. This song is quite simply a masterpiece and almost a “this is how technical death metal should be done” thing to any newer bands that are playing this kind of music.
The album finishes with a cover of Brujeria’s “Revolucion” which is a rather faithful interpretation of the original. They haven’t tried to make it something it isn’t and the added intro of the American anthem with an explosion and Trump quote bring the song right up to date and all the more relevant in today’s society.
So after 20 years of doing this type of music have the band finally run out of steam? Oh no. If anything the band have somehow elevated themselves to new heights with this album. It’s as if they’ve taken a long hard look back at their old albums and decided to combine the best bits of each of them and throw in a few other things for good measure. The result is an album that took my breath away within the first few seconds of listening to it.
Rating: Perfect 10
Standout Tracks: “Infinitesimal to the Infinite”, “Truthslayer”, “Dajjal”, “Burden of Prescience” “Unequivocal”
Unparalleled Universe is released on June 20th via Nuclear Blast Records in the US and Agonia Records in the rest of the world.
