Danish label Indisciplinarian‘s excellent run of releases (at least the ones I’ve heard) continues with this new outing from sci-fi thrashers Terminalist. Disciples of the philosophical theory of Dromology (look it up while you’re listening to the album), they certainly don’t mess about over the course of the album’s five tracks and thirty odd minutes of fast-paced, mayhem-inducing heavy metal.
The best tracks here, notably the album’s ten-minute long centrepiece Invention of the Shipwreck and following track Estranged Reflection add a bit of zany, off-kilter prog to the mix which I think fans of Voivod might lap up, but for the most part this is heads down stuff with an appealingly blackened edge.
Emil Hansen‘s gruff vocal approach fits the hell bent for leather musical style well, though interestingly Terminalist – who are thoroughly immersed in all things speedy – never quite head into the lightspeed territory of comedy speed metallers like Dragonforce. Theirs is a controlled madness, and I have to say all the more enjoyable for the refusal to head off the scale velocity wise. Maybe they are saving the real acceleration for future records?
Whatever, there is a mountain of stuff packed into this record; Hansen doubles up on guitar duty with Morten R. Bruun, and the pair employ a savage, slightly ragged tone that absolutely fits the dystopian nature of the lyrics, which centre around a collapsing planet and the subsequent flight into space of it’s rag-tag bunch of human survivors. Yes, you’ve heard that all before, but rarely done with such compelling musical heft as you get to encounter here. Just marvel at those crunchy riffs, off kilter leads and churning rhythm section in second track Terminal Dispatch!
Dystopian futures aren’t meant to be fun, I’ll grant you, but this is such a hugely entertaining little slab of inventive metal that you owe it to yourself to cop an earful of. Get to it!
The Great Acceleration releases on May 7th
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