photos by Devin Tolman
As 20 Buck Spin prepares for this Friday’s release of Deconsecrate, the new LP from Portland, Oregon technical death metal outfit ÆNIGMATUM, Invisible Oranges is now hosting an exclusive advance stream of the record alongside a feature on the band.
Following their well-received eponymous debut, the idiosyncratic methodology of ÆNIGMATUM is instantly apparent from the whip-start blast of Deconsecrate’s opening track “Forged From Bedlam.” While the pace is frenetic, speed is never a crutch to be relied upon but rather one deliberate device in a sprawling collection of melodically precise and technically riveting fragmented death shards.
Within their in-depth interview with the band, Invisible Oranges writes in part, “Though the band themselves avoid references as much as possible to their sheer instrumental mastery, it’s really a lot of why this album is so impressive. It’s hard to write stuff that’s complex without it coming across wrong, or feeling weak, but ÆNIGMATUM tie together weird and difficult riffs alongside wicked bass and some of the fastest drums in the genre to give something that, despite evoking a few specific names (The Chasm, Alf-era At The Gates, Cynic) has something that is undeniably their own sound. The gorgeous and bizarre cover art says it best: this is not an album for the faint of heart, but it is goddamn good if you’re willing to give it a chance.”
Stream ÆNIGMATUM’s entire Deconsecrate first only through Invisible Oranges at THIS LOCATION.
Deconsecrate will see release through 20 Buck Spin Friday, August 13th on LP, CD, cassette, and digital. Find preorders at the label webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
The drums and some of Deconsecrate’s rhythm guitars were engineered by Charlie Koryn at Toadhouse Studio, the rest of the rhythm as well as lead guitars, bass, drums, and vocals were engineered by the band’s Brian Rush at various locations. The album was re-amped by Leon Del Muerte (Impaled) at Beastman Audio, mixed by Charlie Koryn at The Underworld Studio, mastered by Julian Silva at On-Air Mastering, and completed with surreal artwork by Ivory Crux (Voidceremony) and layout by Dan Fried.
The eight songs on Deconsecrate constitute a labyrinthian structure of twisting nuanced complexity and intricate explosive chaos. Blood-freezing and incandescently beautiful at once, ÆNIGMATUM tempers their withering elaborate intensity with astonishingly elegant melodic passages carved into the mind like towering marble hallucinations. Immersing in Deconsecrate, one might be forgiven assuming they’d stumbled upon a lost obscurity of mid-1990s Gothenburg, the dark harmonies, the dual guitars, the staggering rhythm section; but in fact, ÆNIGMATUM has bequeathed a startlingly ambitious paragon of mystifying esoteric death metal magnificence. Fans of Eucharist, The Chasm, At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, Necrophobic, Atrocity, Death, and early Opeth should not miss ÆNIGMATUM’s Deconsecrate.
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