Over the course of three albums beginning in 2006 the Montréal band Derelict have established a name for themselves as a group that found an intersection between technical death metal and the more brutal and melodic pathways of the death metal soundscape. A long 12 years have passed since their last album, but now they’re finally returning with a fourth one.
The title of the new album is Versus Entropy, a nine-song affair that’s now set for release on June 21st. What we have for you today is the premiere of the second single from the album — “Spectrum” — and it’s a very interesting song in more ways than one.
L-R – Eric Burnet – Vocals, Guitar, Max Lussier – Guitar, Vocals, Sébastien Pittet – Bass, Tommy McKinnon – Drums
In the songwriting, Derelict decided to bring elements of Southern metal and blues into a hard-charging track that also shows off their tech-death talents, and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it makes for an effective combination.
Also interesting is the uniting of the music with a particular lyrical theme, which the band explain as follows:
“This is a call of allegiance to anyone who has been made to feel lesser than because of the expression of their identity, gender, sexuality, or personality in general. Nobody gets to tell you how to be, and we’ll stand for that. How you treat others is the determination of your worth.”
They’ve also explained that Southern metal often has “this tough guy vibe about it”, and although they enjoy a lot of that stuff, that’s not the kind of feeling or message they have ever wanted to convey themselves as artists. So they “came up with the idea of writing a song about the acceptance of alternative masculinities, essentially a celebration of the different kinds of men that exist and how it’s OK to just be who you are.”
As song beginnings go, the one at the outset of “Spectrum” is especially electrifying, an amalgam of rapidly quivering strings, savage percussive bursts, and feverishly swirling and wailing guitar solos by Max Lussier and Eric Burnet.
The turbocharged intensity stays high with the appearance of vicious snarls and rabid howls, coupled with weaponized drum attacks and swarming riffage, but the song reveals a new dimension as singing joins in with the snarling.
There’s more of Lussier‘s soloing too, a head-spinning romp, soon followed by a slithering and menacing guitar arpeggio, as well as further episodes of harmonized singing and fang-baring tirades.
The soloing and the singing does bring in elements of “Southern metal”, and gives the song a very distinctive personality.
Versus Entropy was mixed and mastered by Jean-François Dagenais of Kataklysm, and it features cover art by Cate Francis. You’ll find pre-orders via the first link below, and after the links we’re also including a stream of the album’s first single — its title track.
That song is a battering, jolting, and feverish display of aggression and dismay. It’s a pulse-punching and skull-busting experience, but there’s something about the freakishly swirling fretwork that channels confusion and a kind of dismal delirium. The soloing in this song is just as exhilarating as in the one we’ve premiered, but it also soars in epic fashion.
Surprisingly, this song also segues into a softer and jazzier instrumental interlude, which acts as a prelude to another tandem of clean and vitriolic vocals and an explosion of cataclysmic madness — though the band revisit that gentle and beguiling interlude at the end.
PRE-ORDER:
https://derelictmetal.bandcamp.com/album/versus-entropy
FOLLOW:
https://www.facebook.com/DerelictMetal
https://www.instagram.com/derelictmetal
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