The Pitch: Canada tech death trio Viledriver present their dizzying new album, Primary via CDN Records; an album I can only describe as death metal meets The Dillinger Escape Plan. FFO: The Red Chord, Archspire, early BTBAM
What I Like: Primary is 27 minutes of wall-to-wall techgasms. Every single track is near perfection, drawing plenty of parallels with TDEP and The Red Chord in addition to more extreme groups like Decapitated and Beneath the Massacre. It's no wonder where Viledriver's sound comes from after perusing their influences page. Psyopus? Cryptopsy? Car Bomb? Nile? These guys are all over the grid. It's like the three of them took turns tossing their favorite bands into a boiling cauldron and drank the resulting potion to absorb their powers.
There's plenty of Weinman/Arpmandude-esque dissonant guitar breaks, Archspire-ish vocals ("Gagrag"), and insane drumming worthy of Dying Fetus and Ion Dissonance alike. As such, Primary is an impressively technical release made up of many different approaches. But it's not just one influence, then another, then another...it's all of them at once. All of these styles comie together into one focused approach that is pure Viledriver through and through.
Critiques: I don't have any specific suggestions, but there is certainly room for growth. There could be a little more variation between tracks and a few more surprises like the vocal intro to the aforementioned "Gagrag."
The Verdict: Viledriver have built a veritable Frankenstein monster with Primary. It's a fantastic album; one that is incredibly concise and consistent. If you're a fan of mathcore, deathcore, death metal, tech death, or all of the above; then you absolutely need to give this album a spin. Stream it on Youtube. Buy it HERE.
Flight's Fav's: Gates of Horn and Ivory, Frightener, Gagrag
-Review by FlightOfIcarus
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