Discover Metal

Weekly Review #3 is here! The album in this week’s review is “Perfect World Creation” by Dark Matter Secret. This band was founded by Denis Shvarts and Pavel Semin of Irreversible Mechanism, which is definitely reflected in the band’s progressive death metal sound.

The album starts with an atmospheric intro titled “Chaos Born”. It starts with dissonant acoustic guitar combined with eerie sound effects. Towards the end however, it transitions to a more melodic structure, while still keeping some of the dissonant feeling. This is one of my personal favorite intros, as it fills you with anticipation and also reflects some of the coming songs very well.

The second track is titled “Ancient God Genesis”. This 8 minute track is the longest one found on the whole album, and features multiple guitar solos, brilliant riffs, odd time signatures and drums that reach further into much more creative playing than just straight blast beats for 8 minutes straight. This track is simply a stand-alone great tech-death song, and feels like it would work as a single. I feel like this is a slightly unappreciated detail when it comes to metal songwriting, which is individual songs that deliver on all fronts, while still holding a beginning, middle, and end type of structure.

“The Emergence of Time” is another song with brilliant technical guitar work, while now also introducing much more aggressive and technical drumming to go with it. This type of drumming and the dissonant tech-death riffs on this track compliment each other very well. This track also features a lot more of straight-up riffs that form more distinctive sections, while still keeping the dissonant and chaotic part of the band’s sound fully intact.

The fourth track, “Synthesis of Matter”, features a much more melodic feeling, while maintaining the aggressive drums from the previous song. This is one of those songs where there isn’t a distinct solo section, but the whole song feels like a well crafted blend of melodic guitar where riffs and solos are hard to tell apart. This being said, there aren’t many of what would be considered traditional “riffs”, but the song still manages to sound thoughtful and well organised.

“Constellation Glows” is a more similar track to “Ancient God Genesis”, while also using melodic elements (especially towards the end of the song) to create a more atmospheric feeling. The outro even features some acoustic guitar with a similar feeling to “Chaos Born”, which leads well into the intro of the final track on the album.

The final track, “Perfect World Creation”, starts off with an intro composed of dissonant solo guitar, which eventually fades into the first portions of the song. This track is where the dissonance and beautiful melody on this album come to an ultimate climax, which as a result brings a track that doesn’t have 1 second of uninteresting downtime. This track takes all of the positive elements, the brilliant and blast filled drumming, the technical riff work, the eerie and dissonant atmospheric sections, and the melodic guitar work, putting it all together into an amazing package that is the title track of this album. The outro of this final song is dissonant in the same way as the intro, however this time somehow manages to seem less eerie and even uplifting at times. Overall, this is probably the song that combines all of the musical elements on this record the best. 

#2 of Friday review is here! (Posted on Sunday) The album in this weeks review is Immersion by Irreversible Mechanism. 

The first track on the album sets an atmospheric tone, beginning with a long and beautiful intro that has the listener deeply intrigued but also on the edge of their seat in anticipation for the song to truly kick in. Existence 1: Contemplation is an all out beautiful track that sets the stage exceptionally well for what is to come on the album. Many metal albums often lack these kind of intros, but this one is truly a welcome exception when it comes to this rule.

This is followed by “Existence II: Collision”, which while keeping the melodic and atmospheric mood, has a lot more weight to it in terms of riffs and all out musical material. This is a brilliant example of why this album feels like no other that I’ve ever listened to. Its heavy, but at the same time feels almost like a lullaby for your ears that you literally fall asleep to. Its truly incredible songwriting to create this kind of effect, and you will know what I mean once you too have listened to this album.

The third song on this album is “Abolution”. Its a longer, and truly delivering track that builds on the mood that was established in the last 2 songs. The instrumentation and vocals on this track are absolutely unreal, and I feel like I could listen to this song 100 times in a row and I would still be amazed every time at just how perfect it truly sounds.

The fourth track, “Simulacra”, is an instrumental break from the previous 3 songs. Yet, it still stands as a masterpiece on its own and keeps the listener entertained for almost 5 minutes with nothing but atmospheric guitar tones (yes, no drums either!).

The fifth song is the longest one on the album. Titled “Footprints in the Sand”, its an almost 9 minute journey that repeats through all of the things that the album has delivered thus far, and more. This song such a masterpiece of pure songwriting prowess, that the most I can say is take a listen, and you will be a fan of this band for life!

“Beyond” is a more straight forward tech-death song, but thats not to say that its still incredibly well written and the guitar work is unparalleled (when it comes to technicality) when compared to anywhere else on the album, and even most modern tech-death.

Limbo shares very many elements with “Simulacra”, while now introducing some drums for more effect. Another very successful break within the flow of the album, managing to still feel very in place and sounding meaningful to the overall experience that is “Immersion”.

Now, the title track “Immersion”. This song too contains many elements of tech-death, while also maintaining some elements of atmospheric guitar work that can be heard on “Footprints in the Sand”. Overall a great track that leads beautifully into the last instrumental on the album.