The cover of the new album by Coexistence, as rendered by the enormously talented Adam Burke, is a wondrous sight to behold, a collage of beautiful colors and strange sights — of jutting spikes of stone, of a giant moon and winking stars, of aquamarine water cascading into what seems to be an entirely different dimension or sector of the cosmos…. And this is one of those pleasing cases in which the attractions of a painted album cover suit the music enshrined in the record.
That record, Collateral Dimension, is the debut album by this Italian band, who already opened lots of eyes through their 2018 EP, Contact With the Entity (reviewed here). And as good as that EP was, it is no exaggeration to say that the album is a great leap forward. Transcending Obscurity Records, which will release the album on October 23rd, calls it “a marvel”, and that’s no exaggeration either. It presents a tremendously multi-faceted hybrid of technical and progressive death metal that’s capable of entrancing and bewildering the listener while coming for your throat at the same time. We have a great example of this in the song we’re presenting today, “Symbiosis of Creation“.
Like the album artwork, this new song is in part a sonic collage of beautiful and constantly swirling colors — shimmering finger-tapped melodies, seductively bubbling bass notes, tones that peal like ephemeral bells, and (at the end), moody but mesmerizing string reverberations. But the sonic collage of the song contains darker and more deranged elements as well — bullet-spitting drums, grim low-end reverberations, jackhammering riff-work, and vicious growled vocals, as well as guitar soloing that’s electrifying but at least slightly crazed in its ecstastically mercurial flight.
It turns out that those bursts of shimmering and swirling melody, which themselves begin to sound freakish as well as spellbinding, become the main glue that holds the song together and that cause the track to catch so sharply in the head. The music does indeed seem to carry the listener into strange and splendid dimensions, and to beguile as well as bludgeon. The technical skill of the performances is obviously at a high level, but the captivating nature of the song-writing stands out just as much.
Transcending Obscurity will release the album on CD and digitally, along with apparel that also makes good use of the fine cover art. Along with the song we’re premiering, we also encourage you to check out the two previously released album tracks below, “Metaphysical Essence” and the title song “Collateral Dimension”.
PRE-ORDER:
https://coexistenceband.bandcamp.com/
COEXISTENCE:
https://www.facebook.com/coexistenceprogdeath
TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY RECORDS:
http://tometal.com/
https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.de/