Replacire – The Center That Cannot Hold
Release Date: 21st June 2024
Label: Season of Mist
Bandcamp
Genre: Technical Death Metal
FFO: Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Aborted.
Review By: Jeff Finch
Technical Death Metal is not for everyone, let’s just get that out of the way right now. Sometimes it’s too weedly, sometimes too woodly, and sometimes a combination of both; technicality for the sake of technicality instead of technicality for the sake of creating promising, enthralling, impactful sonic soundscapes. Thankfully for their fans, Replacire does not fall into the bad habit of being incredible musicians just to show off their technical prowess; what they do, instead, is utilize their technical prowess for songwriting good, as their albums, this one included, are always full of caveman riffs and blistering rhythms that will get any metal head ready to mosh.
Anyone that has jammed this group knows that intensity is front and center, and it takes very little time to re-establish that mammoth sound. Opener Bloody-Tongued and Screaming comes right out of the gate with visceral vocals, courtesy of James Dorton, he of Black Crown Initiate fame, the stop-start rhythms and the chaotic time signatures displaying Dillinger Escape Plan levels of insane, alternating between these ridiculous tempo shifts and furiously paced death metal, rife with blast beats, inhumanely paced riffs, and purely venomous vocals. Meanwhile, our title track is an exercise in pure brutality; some of the quieter, less intense areas have a Slipknot feel to them, while the rest of the track maintains a breakneck pace, the syncopated snare hits, precision double bass and blast beats running wild with Eric Alper’s fretwork freneticism, while Dorton is positively unhinged with his vocal delivery, never once dropping the intensity, even as the music ebbs and flows in varying levels of chaos.
It’s on tracks like Drag Yourself Along the Earth and our closer Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled that we see a different side of Replacire, one that is not unwelcome: on the former, clean vocals, melodic riffs, restrained performances give the illusion of a modern metal band, no tech death in sight, before the band dispels those notions right quick, a visceral shout and burst of double bass roping the listener back in, lulling us just enough that this re-entry is filled with extra gusto, as now we don’t know what the band is going to be pulling out of their bag of tricks next. The band alternates between these sonic opposites for the vast majority of the song, a blistering solo ripping through before making one final transition into the propulsive main groove.
Meanwhile, the latter, the longest track on the album and our closer, bides its time in near equal measure, melodic guitar rhythms poking through the speakers as our vocalist croons, the tension palpable as the music takes on a more impatient tone, that little boost in the mix just enough to warn us that the chaos is coming and there’s no stopping it: the massive riffs pulsating as the kit takes a beating, the fills technical and jaw dropping, a guitar solo ripping through the maelstrom around the midway point of the track, super melodic, not out of place in a Dream Theater song, as the unrepentant fury of the percussion refuses to relent. The tempo shifts and time signature changes are performed with masterful precision, never once feeling jarring and always leading us deeper into the chasm, a ferociously deep growl beating us mercilessly around the 5-minute mark, the band taking a slight break and moving into a breakdown groove, before we’re hit one final time with a brutal shriek, layered vocals essentially harmonizing with a melodic guitar solo, the whole band trying to throw every last thing they can into the final minute; double bass, a solo that covers the fretboard, Dorton going to his lowest register one more time, stop start beats remorselessly beating us into a pulp just as the song goes to black.
What Replacire does on this album is demonstrate an innate talent for songwriting and immense musical talent, the combination of the two creating technical death metal that is somehow catchy, unwaveringly brutal, and so captivating that not once will a listener think to themselves that the band is performing just so stroke their own egos. The death metal provided on this record may be technical, but it’s written so well, so obviously fine-tuned by the band to be as crisp and perfect as possible. Replacire doesn’t churn out music; they create musical landscapes, still inherently techy but also heavy as hell, clearly pouring out their heart and soul into these songs to make them as powerful and impactful as they can be.
If you’re a fan of the band, the genre, or just blisteringly heavy music, this album is a must-listen.
(4.5 / 5)
