(Here we have TheMadIsraeli’s review of the new album by Sweden’s Soreption, which will be released on February 18 by Unique Leader.)
I first heard about Swedish tech-death Cthulhu Soreption when Vildhjarta mastermind Daniel Bergstrom told me to check them out, hailing them as the new flagship name of technical death metal. I listened to their 2010 debut Deterioration of Minds and was blown away by their brand of mechanical madness. Not only were these guys tighter than advanced machinery, they knew how to write technical death metal that was engrossing on a musicianship level, yet still concise and to the point. That’s a pretty hard thing to do in this style, considering that the vast majority of kindred albums mainly suffer from the writing of songs that just meander through riff sprees and never stick out.
Soreption definitely nailed it with their debut, and now with the band’s sophomore effort Engineering the Void they have created the sonic equivalent of a planet destroyer. Seriously, the record is what I imagine the Earth getting crushed by a giant machine built for grinding planets into dust would sound like. It’s so cold, so devoid of mercy, that this would put anyone not up to the listen into a corner in the fetal position. It’s an autonomous meat grinder, a fucking genocide mechanism, this is tech death at its most pristine and most carnivorous.
Engineering The Void IS Deterioration of Minds 2.0, but that’s no small thing to say. Everything about the established Soreption sound is here, just better and more brutal, with a more mature ethos about it.
The album is an example of tech-death guitar work at its finest. Anton Svedin’s riffs sound more like an alien space-wasp attack than anything. Soreption are definitely identifiable in part by the riffs and the solos; the frenzy of technical proficiency that just feels like a buzz-saw tearing through the fabric of souls is what drives the sound.
Of course, this music wouldn’t work without the rest of the band, and they are masters at what they do, too. Bassist Rickard Persson is absolutely inhuman, slithering and dancing around the fretboard along with the riffs with ease. The fact that his bass is quite present on this record adds to the album immensely. Soreption’s riffs are very much in the noodily and ever-moving school, and his ability to write bass lines that lock in tandem with the guitar give them much needed-meat that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
The drums and vocals of Tony Westermark and Fredrik Soderberg are also on point. Westermark’s drumming is excessive, decadent even, and filled with all sorts of flourishes, while Soderberg’s vocals are putrid and disgusting, yet handled with masterful precision.
This is a pretty big monster of an album with which tech death begins 2014, and anyone who releases a record this year in Soreption’s field is going to have to be really fucking badass and exceptional if they hope to keep pace. Definitely worth the wait, and a must-have album.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Engineering the Void is due for release on February 18, 2014, can be pre-ordered here. To hear the title track, which features guest vocals by Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder, go here. A previously released song and an album teaser can be heard below.
14 Responses to “SOREPTION: “ENGINEERING THE VOID””
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I liked most of the “Breaking the Great Narcissist” track, but the orchestral part was really bland and phoned-in imo.
Definitely agreed. Same with on the title track.
I know how awesome “Soreption” are because of their previous album. I liked their two premiered songs a lot so I will wait for their new music!
“Deterioration of Minds” is fantastic, i can’t wait to hear this
Tech-death’s come out of the gate pretty strong this year, what with this and The Kennedy Veil.
Unique Leader swinging for the fences pretty hard in these first few months. They’ve got Alterbeast (another Sacramento act) coming in March and Flesh Bound Text made that disc seem promising.
They’re monopolizing this style of music. Fortunately, the antitrust laws are dead in the United States. Unless, you know, you have to pay for what you want to buy.
I’d like to see them sign one sludge or doom band, just to keep people on their toes (and for shites and giggles).
I like the way you think. Curveballs, curveballs make life worth living, except when they hit you in the forehead. How about stoner metal? Or the funeral doom subset of doom? People would shit.
They gotta package it the same as any other tech death album though, artwork-wise. Do it like Grime (I think their name is), that one sludge band who’s touring in Europe with -16- soon whose new album’s cover look like an OSDM album, and doesn’t at all hint at the sludge within.
The cover of the last 16 album was cool as shit. You got a link to the new one?
I was talking about Grime. I haven’t heard much out of the 16 camp in a while, apart from a few one-off shows.
Here’s the cover I was talking about:
http://www.forcefieldrecords.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/GRIME-Deteriorate.jpg
I think I’m going to get a Cannibal Corpse clone with that artwork, but I get something very different. Same could go with a tech-death to funeral doom combination. Or, better yet, a funk album.
Ooops. Well, that’s a very cool cover even though it’s not 16. 🙂
Meh. I guess I’m just not much of a tech death fan anymore.