(This is DGR‘s review of the debut album by the German band Synaptic, which was released in January by Lifeless Chasm Records.)
Dwelling in the earlier part of the year has so far presented a handful of pleasant surprises but none came out of left field quite like the first full-length from Germany’s Synaptic, a tech-death, thrash, and melodeath hybrid that has resulted in a sub-thirty-five minute blistering whirlwind of an album known as Enter The Void.
Synaptic have existed in one embryonic form or another for over twenty-plus years of on-and-off activity but up to this point have only had one release to their name, a twenty-seven minute EP dating back to 2008 entitled Distortion Of Senses. Since then, the whole lineup has changed save for one main project-driver, and it seems as if the entire sound of the group has shifted from those days. It means that in a lot of ways Enter The Void is a full relaunch of Synaptic – now a three piece – and is the sort of release that makes it seem as if the seventeen years between releases were put to good use.
Even though there’s only an eight-minute difference between Synaptic‘s full-length and the aforementioned EP, there is a lot more packed within those thirty some-odd minutes than you might expect.
Synaptic have wide ambitions for Enter The Void. They waste no time making it clear that this is a guitar-shred nerd’s album with plenty of appeal for those who love the guitar-note waterfall that often follows in the wake of a tech-death album in modern times. Synaptic aren’t a full-blown tech-death group but they’ve found a good spot for themselves dancing on a fine line between thrash-worthy guitar riffs that propel their music forward, melodeath melodies, and the much more dominant technical side of things wherein the fretboard work is a deft dance as much as it is an interweaving of leads that get stuck in your head.
Enter The Void contains three instrumentals and five songs of wildly varied length for its total of eight tracks. The instrumental tracks are calmer than you might expect and serve as both scene-setter and curtain-closer as Enter The Void opens with an ambient piece as well. What that leaves then are five full-blown songs where the accelerator is effectively smashed through the floor and with enough packed into them that Synaptic could challenge the Inferi‘s of the world for the crown of just how much a group can fit into a song with a five and a half minute run time.
If it seems like we’re joking with some of these descriptors, take in the starting moments of opener “Malfunctional Minds”, which seems to be more guitar lead and solo in ratio to full-blown song throughout. Every instrumental gets its share of the spotlight too, in a very Allegaeon-esque style songwriting moment, but if you don’t conclude that Enter The Void is a purpose-built guitarist’s album you’d be kidding yourself. Sometimes it even seems like the rhythm section is just hanging on as guitar parts seem to be crashing into one another and darting between segments so quickly that you’re left spinning.
There’s a particular segment in the song’s guitar solo that feels like Synaptic just declared ‘I’m going to drop this pin and the moment it hits the ground, we’re going to go insanely fast for a few measures with no announcement’. Much as my favorite cctv footage – so long as no one gets hurt – is a car suddenly crashing into a building or store, so too does it seem like part of “Malfunctional Minds” is built around the ‘surprise, dipshits!’ aspect of songwriting. Enter The Void is much like watching a cartoon’s idea of lighting a trail of gunpowder on fire and having it rapidly burn up until a final explosion, and the opening track sends the signal that every song is going to be an iteration on that. It is instrumental pyrotechnics at its finest with some sharpened vocals sailing over the top.
We’d be remiss without shouting out the thudding heaviness of “The Lost Continent” in response afterward. Synaptic don’t stray too far from that opening volley within the song – their general formula is laid pretty clear within the opening song — but they’re definitely going to use every part of the tech-death and melodeath animal available to them on every other song. That’s how “The Lost Continent” gets to have its bass guitar brought way up to the forefront for some true concrete-punching and knuckle-cracking. Its braindead thudding rhythms punctuate the song while some heavily processed and guitar-effect walled leads worm their way throughout. It’s a gnarlier song but this is still of the breed of face-on-fire tech-death that the guitar warriors of olde have comfortably made home.
Synaptic basically dance between these two formats for the whole of Enter The Void, which is why a song like “Architects Of The Night” is of similar vein to its opener sibling yet could also have a lot of appeal to fans of The Ritual Aura‘s Laniakea since it just does not stop showing that you are with insanity on the instrumental front. It’s a little prettier than the constant interstellar war that made up that album, as Synaptic aren’t afraid to let some clean singing work its way in, but that’ll be more of comfort to the Obscura crowd who really dig the vocoder effect that’s been a calling card of that group’s music for some time now.
Enter The Void is an early contestant for the riff-avalanche competition that is a running undercurrent each year. Even with its handful of instrumental and ambient intro bits, you couldn’t really deny that Synaptic are providing more than enough on an auditory front. They’re head-spinning and rip-roaring fast as a regular setting on this disc, and as a result so many of the songs will just blast by you like a race car the first few listens. It’s enough to leave a listener in awe at first as Synaptic go tearing through song after song, each structure built up previously just as quickly annihilated by the song following. There’s much to take in on that initial go-around other than just being generally impressed with how these songs are crafted.
Repeated listens to Enter The Void have provided just as many new moments of discovery as they have ensured that the initial ‘wow’ still hasn’t worn off when Synaptic spin the machine up again to ransack their way through another song at high speed. Yes, it’s a “million wall of notes” guitar leads but it’s also tremendous fun just letting the whole album wash over and overwhelm you that way. The instrumental pyrotechnic and technicality battle has a new late entrant into the ranks of a race that has long since gone nuclear. Synaptic‘s first full length album is – like mentioned before – such an impressive piece of work that you can’t help but be left in awe by it.
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