Like many fans of unabashed extremity, I bought into the tech death craze of the late 2000s really hard. And like 99% of the people who bought into it, I fell out of it fairly quickly. There's only so much brain-warping technicality you can come across before it stops being impressive and starts being the norm. The problem is that the highest bars were all set fairly early and most bands were always chasing a few gargantuan shadows. Early on there were basically only three bands to choose from, and they all one-upped each other super quickly and that was that. Deeds of Flesh is one of the earliest examples to take the Suffocation/Dying Fetus style of brutal death metal with loads of technicality and amp it up to an almost inhuman level of musicianship, Necrophagist pretty definitively laid the foundation for what tech death would become shortly afterwards with Onset of Putrefaction in 1999 (it's easy to forget just how ahead of their time they were) with the insane speed finding itself coupled with highly melodic passages and nutso soloing, and then the following year Origin released their self titled debut and more or less set the standard with their style of what I affectionately call "salad shooter" tech death. For a time, if you liked this style those were really the only three bands worth a damn to choose from, until sometime around 2007ish it just fucking exploded and all of the sudden seemingly everybody was signed to Unique Leader or Willowtip and had Par Olofsson doing their album covers. And despite that, Origin were still the kings of the genre, with their 2008 masterpiece, Antithesis, setting the absolute gold standard of what human limits could achieve within the genre while still crafting memorable and worthwhile songs. Nothing else was that fast, that impressive, and that catchy. For nearly a decade, the entire scene was trying and failing to surpass Antithesis, which is probably a big reason why it fell out of favor so quickly. The apex had already been achieved, and nobody was able to match it.
That lengthy preamble really only serves to provide context for why Archspire has brought the genre back into the spotlight for a time. Despite the fact that a few phenomenal bands managed to flourish in the wake of Antithesis (Hour of Penance, pre-Agony Fleshgod Apocalypse, Spawn of Possession, Decrepit Birth, Hideous Divinity, etc), Archspire was the first band to really hint at having the potential to, on a technical and objective level, finally usurp that thundering monolith of modern metal. The pieces were all there on The Lucid Collective, but the songs themselves hadn't quite reached the level of incessant infectiousness yet to truly push them over the edge. But the writing was on the wall, these guys had the chops to make it happen. And with Relentless Mutation they finally, finally did it.
What makes this album stand out, to me at least, is that it's probably the most unabashedly unrestrained album in the genre. It pushes the limits of human dexterity and lung capacity to levels several parsecs past the last established extreme. Prewett's feet move so fucking fast that it sounds like the bass drum is a god damned ziptie, and Oli Peters can growl and rasp at speeds comparable to a tape on fast forward. It's probably cliche to point out how fast Archspire is, but it is their most notable quality regardless. I think the reason Oli and Spencer have become such superstars in the scene is because they're probably the first at their respective instruments to truly ascend to a higher plane of skill. Speedy and precise drummers have been commonplace in tech death forever now, but Prewett's sheer relentlessness is something you don't really get all that often. Despite the mechanically precise drumming on display, he still feels human. The first time I heard John Longstreth or Lord Marco drum, I felt like I was hearing somebody who was let loose on a drum machine and just went overboard. The first time I heard Prewett, even though it was on an album much less memorable than this one, I felt like how I felt the first time I heard Pete Sandoval or Flo Mournier. All you need to do is listen to pretty much any song here, or watch a drum playthrough or something, and you'll understand just how special he is. Playing this insane doesn't usually come with such feeling, but somehow he manages it. There's a lot of passion and feeling in his spastic drum performance, it's a very emotionally charged blast of aggression, as laser-guided and pinpoint as it is. Oli needs less explaining, because all I can think to say is "Think about how impressed scene veterans are with Corpsegrinder's rate of delivery. Now imagine him on a coke bender." He sounds like a rabid wolverine, with each syllable punctuated for emphasis, so he rattles off these ridiculously verbose lyrics with a fine tuned breathless staccato roar. It's like getting punched a thousand times in a few seconds.
The other guys are obviously great as well, but the drums and vocals are indisputably what gave Archspire their push towards fame. However, all of these standout technical performances would mean something between "jack" and "shit" if the songs themselves weren't great as well. That is where The Lucid Collective failed, but it is where Relentless Mutation excels. This album has hooks out the fucking wazoo, and since it keeps itself contained to a mere thirty minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, deftly maneuvering through a few million notes with such glitter-tossing flair that you're sure to remember the multitude vocal lines and bass breaks. "Involuntary Doppelganger" has become an instant hit for good reason, as it manages to perfectly blend the frenzied speed with well crafted hooks in a way that nobody has been able to replicate since Origin a decade prior. "Remote Tumour Seeker" and the title track are highlights in this regard as well, with the latter throwing in some spacey prog sections as well. Usually that shit would annoy me, but it's a welcome break from the overwhelming deluge of riffery that the rest of the album giddily rejoices in. Even the occasional proggy sections like this still see the bass noodling around with bloopy arpeggios and the drums never stop pummeling away with inhumanly fast skinwork. There's even a nice vocal intro for "Calamus Will Animate", coupled with a handful of absolutely devastating breakdowns across a few tracks. If nothing else, these guys understand the value of throwing a few curveballs now and then, because tech death can tend to be too much of the same at times. There are samey moments here and there of course, it's unavoidable with the style, but there are enough neat little oddities here and there that it winds up being an ultimately small issue.
The album artwork is a pretty good visualization of what Relentless Mutation sounds like. It's completely overwhelming, seeing the listener frantically clawing at their own face while they drown, begging for some sort of release from this fast-expanding virus that eats your flesh and sprouts cancerous growths and parasitic leeches. Thankfully, the band revels in this utter batshittery and winds up being very enjoyable in their mania. The album has been out for a little over a year now, and I still find myself coming back to it for the occasional maiming. One of my biggest regrets is snubbing this for my year end list last year in favor of Hideous Divinity. They're still great, don't get me wrong, but Archspire is on a whole other level, and something this exceptional deserves all the love it can get.
RATING: 91%
