DERELICT Posts Drum Playthrough For “The Escapist” Off New Album “Versus Entropy” Out Now!

NEWS RELEASE

Montreal, QC – August 6, 2024

DERELICT Posts Drum Playthrough For “The Escapist” Off New Album “Versus Entropy” Out Now!

L-R РEric Burnet РVocals, Guitar, Max Lussier РGuitar, Vocals, S̩bastien Pittet РBass, Tommy McKinnon РDrums

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Returning after a 12-year hiatus with their breakthrough and highly anticipated album “Versus Entropy” unleashed this past June, Montreal, Canada’s Derelict is sharing their next drum playthrough from Tommy McKinnon for the full-length’s closing track “The Escapist”. The song features a combination of classic Derelict elements like the trem picking and odd time signatures but with a cool type of groove and some exotic gypsy scale breaks and leads. The lyrics are about wanting to escape your reality, be it through substances, media, or other avenues.

“We think this one is both brutal and progressive in equal amounts. We think you could describe the album that way as a whole so we thought it was a nice way to wrap it up.” adds the band.

Drummer Tommy McKinnon also adds:

“The Escapist was definitely one of the most challenging tunes I had to nail for the album. The tempo is pretty fast and there are breaks in sextuplets, which are sort of tricky to get into after just giving her at 203 bpm. This was my last day of tracking (I took a week off work) and I was getting kind of pissed off because I was about to run out of time. I had planned to film that song as a play-thru while recording the album because I felt like it was a great song to watch on drums. Anyway, I got it done and this is what you can see here. Worth the trouble in my opinion!”

Watch and listen to the drum playthrough for “The Escapist” at https://youtu.be/jUalY70o9H4

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Derelict‘s latest album “Versus Entropy” is a testament to the collaborative synergy between Burnet and guitarist Max Lussier. Each song on the album is a joint effort, with contributions from bassist Sébastien Pittet and drummer Tommy McKinnon adding layers of complexity and depth.

Unshackling their brutal melodic technical death metal, this full length has been a long time coming as it unfolds in two distinct chapters, the first four songs can be considered a pure evolution of what they did on 2012’s “Perpetuation”. It is then separated by an instrumental piece “Attunement” that offers a breather and a bridge to the last four tracks that feature probably the band’s most brutal, southern, thrashiest, and old-school prog death songs ever written by them.

Lyrically, the album delves into both global and personal themes, from climate change and social injustice to introspective explorations of identity and emotion. “Versus Entropy” was produced by Burnet and Lussier, mixed and mastered by JF Dagenais (Kataklysm), with the album artwork done by Cate Francis.

Burnet adds about the album:

“Existing fans of Derelict will recognize that it’s us right away. We play technical death metal with lots of melody and vocals that are more on the clear intelligible side (for death metal). That said, we let ourselves experiment and explore with this album. 2012’s ‘Perpetuation’ was full steam ahead. It didn’t have a single clean passage. While we are very proud of that album, we did not want to do that again. We wanted an album that hits hard, breathes, and ends before you get overwhelmed. We were heavily influenced by the structure of Gorguts’ ‘Colored Sands’ album, where they put a long instrumental piece as the fifth track of a nine-song album. We set out to do something similar and wrote our first full-band proggy instrumental song with ‘Attunement’. It serves as a bridge between the two halves of the album. The first four songs probably resemble the Derelict people are most familiar with, but even within that, there are more dynamics and variations. After Attunement, the second half experiments even more. Dans Les Dents is Max’s first song on lead vocals and is probably our most brutal song to date. Spectrum challenges conventions with more of a bluesy/southern metal sound, but the lyrics are about celebrating differences within masculinity by making space for all kinds of identities. The song Derelict is very thrashy and also very cheesy. It’s an ode to the band’s history and I really didn’t hold back on the cheesy and sentimental lyrics. And finally, The Escapist, another sung by Max, is very old school and progressive. You can definitely hear Max’s Death and Atheist influences there.”

Recommended for fans of Decapitated, Death, and Cryptopsy, “Versus Entropy” is available at the following links:

Bandcamp – http://derelictmetal.bandcamp.com​

Spotify – https://spoti.fi/3xNh0U7

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/@Derelictmetal​

Drum playthrough – Versus Entropy – https://youtu.be/gVoamvx4nng​

Vocal playthrough – Infinite Dread – https://youtu.be/yv5tzxkx-oU​

(Album Artwork by Cate Francis)

Track Listing:​
1. Versus Entropy – (4:32)
2. Infinite Dread – (4:23)
3. Terminal – (4:02)
4. Workhorse – (3:00)
5. Attunement – (5:05)
6. Dans les Dents – (2:23)
7. Spectrum – (3:59)
8. Derelict – (4:11)
9. The Escapist – (4:15)
Album Length 35:50

More info: Facebook.com/DerelictMetal | Instagram.com/derelictmetal​

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“Derelict are back with a brutal, technical track, “Versus Entropy.”… The new record is nine tracks long and takes on many themes about the diverse and complex human experience, all while showcasing how ripping and heavy their riffs can be. This song is a great first foray into the heavy and nuanced layers they will bring with this release.” – Decibel Magazine​
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​“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.” – NoCleanSinging​
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​“Versus Entropy is a great blend of the band’s influences in old school death, thrash, and prog/technical death metal. Combining their life experiences with world issues and industry matters (Re: Trevor Strnad), Derelict’s June 21st self-released album is a testament to the continuation of a major Canadian death metal project that is worthy of note as it really seeks to show the band’s remaining fervour for quality production and expression along with current world matters that strike a chord with the members, having lived a generation of life away from the grind, only to return with new perspectives and tastes.” – Metal Epidemic​
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​“What is in the water in CANADA! I swear they have been putting out some of the sickest bands and albums this year! Derelict has stepped up after twelve years with their latest self- release “Versus Entropy” with 9 tracks of traditional Brutal Tech Shred!! Displaying every bit of refined talent through each track. I personally enjoyed track 5, Titled “Attunement” an instrumental right in the middle of the record, makes perfect sense and helps cleanse your palette for the rest of the album. We get that speedy, yet melodic guitar shed throughout all 9 tracks sure to impress any musician and fan of tech metal. Grab your copy” – Keeper Magazine​
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​“”Versus Entropy” est un beau disque dont les notes méritent de tomber dans des oreilles expertes et ne jamais se disperser dans l’oubli. 4/5″
“”Versus Entropy” is a beautiful record whose notes deserve to fall on expert ears and never disperse into oblivion.4/5″ – Music Waves Fr​
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​“Kind of a deathy thrash. crisp heavy” – 89.9 WORT FM – The Moshpit (Madison, WI)​
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​“An album to seek out for those who tend to enjoy a more technical take on a hard, tight and firm variety of extreme metal.” – The Viking In The Wilderness​
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​“You would think with Canadian Tech death you would know everything that there is to know about the style right… Wrong, Derelict has only put out a few albums but each album is really a Great Masterpiece of the tech death world while still showing off that you don’t need to be Tech death 100% of the time. Every riff serves a purpose, every lead sounds so perfect for the song. Everyone in the band absolutely has technicality and musicianship to an absolute but they know how to write songs at the same time and you match that up with fantastic production and you have one of the standout Tech death albums of 2024. Seriously if you need tech death that is not just pure Tech death give Derelict a chance.” – Heavy Debriefings​
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​“It is speedy, brutal and yet still melodic, inventive in arrangement (especially ‘Attunement’) and well produced. Every instrument is cleanly and clearly discerned and the cymbals are easily listened to without overpowering anything else…. no hesitation in awarding Derelict 9/10… Also, fucking ‘Spectrum’ though. The perfect blend of technical ability and groove. Fucking hell.” – Ever-Metal​
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​“Derelict is back. And how. I really enjoyed it Versus Entropy. I listened to this album with a cautiously optimistic curiosity and after several times I came to appreciate it more and more. The musical experiments on the second part turn out very well, and it is artfully done that you still hear the characteristic sound of the band firmly in it. Cool record and I hope physical copies will be available soon. I’d say give the band a chance if you Revocation, Allegeon, Decapitated, Death, The Black Dahlia Murder and Cryptopsy a warm heart. 84/100” – Zware Metalen​
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