Y'know, it figures I just finished a review ranting about how Artisan Era has usurped Unique Leader and Willowtip for the Tech Death Saturation Award, and then the very next thing I tackle is a band on their label that doesn't fit the bill at all.
Warforged obviously gets bonus consideration from me purely for being lucky enough to hail from my neck of the woods, but luckily they're an example of a local band doing Chicago proud for once. Their debut here is clearly meant to be the first part of a saga of sorts given the title, I: Voice, and I can say with certainty that I'm going to keep my ears open for any followup. Voice is very long at 72 minutes, and it's very dense with a whole lot of shit going on, but it's all done very well and the album ebbs and flows enough for the epic length to never become truly overwhelming, try as the music itself might. Quiet ambient keyboard/acoustic passages occasionally break up some absolutely monstrous black/death throughout the runtime, and while these guys may not be masters of infectious riffing, they excel when it comes to atmosphere. Voice is just an endless deluge of confusion and misery, and the disorienting, angular wonkiness of the music keeps the listener on their toes.
The melodic techiness that their label specializes in is certainly prominent in parts (check the midpoint of "Beneath the Forest Floor") but it's not really their forte. No, like I said their true strength lies in overwhelmingly crushing atmosphere, and special mention has to go to Adrian Perez's vocal performance. This guy is absolutely fucking venomous and delivers one of the most menacing and caustic vocal performances I've heard all year. Seriously this guy's shriek is out of this world, and I'm willing to peg him as the musical highlight. With how the music cycles in and out of quiet and loud, he shines the brightest in both segments since he also handles the keyboards and piano when they invariably show up during the quiet passages. Nobody in the band stands out as a slouch though, but the rest of the guys are merely serviceable towards the end goal ravenous devastation instead of being the driving force like the vocals. Musically this hits many of the same notes as some of the more atmospheric tech death bands like Fallujah or later era The Faceless, or maybe something a bit more overtly black metal (those vocals I love so much tend to sit in a mid/high register instead of the traditional deep death metal growl, though he's capable of those as well) like Enfold Darkness. Regardless, it's massive sounding and absolutely punishing.
I don't have many bad things to say about this, only nitpicks. Like the riffs themselves aren't super engaging and tend to just chug really fast or noodle around the middle of the fretboard, but when coupled with the destructively complex percussion and harrowing vocals it all blends together very well into a monumental atmospheric statement. And I guess there aren't any true standout tracks but this is clearly meant to be an album experience so it doesn't really matter. Even my usual preference for short albums takes a backseat here since they pace themselves throughout the gargantuan runtime extremely well. The whole thing is a knockout, and there isn't much about it I would change.
RATING: 90%
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