New Jersey-based technical death metal outfit Cognitive has been humbly, yet viscerally devastating the underground music scene since their inception just a little over six years ago now. The Unique Leader Records represented band is now back in full force with what is known today as their third full length release titled Matricide following a couple year break. Does it live up to the chaotically brilliant songwriting of Deformity? Read on to find out.
Matricide is the ambitious third album from Cognitive to date. The over 40-minute release encompasses a total of ten fleshed out and brutal tracks and is set for release later this month. Produced by Alan Douches, who's previously collaborated with countless such acts as Abiotic, Full Blown Chaos, and Job For A Cowboy, this new release will be available via Unique Leader Records on October 26th. Notably, Matricide also features artwork courtesy of Lordigan, who's done art covers for Analepsy in the past. Now, without further ado, let's get into what makes this one tick.
The album fittingly opens up with a rather lightning-paced track in the form of 'Omnicide'. Much of this intro song employs Cognitive's signature growling vocals, chaotic riffing, double bass and even showcasing a guitar solo within the first minute or so. Soon enough, it all goes into a blast beat section accompanied by tremolos and topping it all off with a droning chug-chug finish. So far it's displaying all the good parts of the band...and that's the best way to describe this album as a whole. Matricide manages to possess all the usual abilities and talents of Cognitive whilst sometimes giving listeners a hint of something that's subtly different. I won't give away too much here, but for instance, 'Architect of Misery' is an early song that is typical brutal death for the most part, but it goes into a somewhat deathcore-ish breakdown section halfway in and shortly after has a bass drop that leads into a guitar solo.
That being said, Matricide arguably has the strongest songwriting for the band to date; the production quality and mastering really helped, too. Despite the new album being not too different from its predecessor, it's still delightfully heavy and techy when it needs to be. The onslaught of brutality throughout easily makes up for the slight lack of innovation. Going back to what I said before, there are some pleasant surprises to be found herein. 'Matricide' is another song I was partial towards for its slammy climax and blast beat drumming, as well as its melodic riffs. Then we get 'False Prophet', which is one song I don't have too much to say about aside from the stellar vocal variety. It's a shorter one, but still gets the point across. After a couple more standard tracks, 'Clouds of Rust' comes on and it's got to be my personal fave on Matricide. From the opening chromatics to the powerful lyricism, the instrumental starpower to the flow and the memorable outro, 'Clouds of Rust' definitely delivers. Same thing with 'Torn from the Void', though I will not say too much more and leave the rest a surprise. The album finishes off with an alright instrumental track, and the journey from start to finish is really energetic, to say the very least.
At the end of the day, while Cognitive's latest effort takes a bit of time to develop its sound and expand on what makes the band tick, it is still another solid, if typical, brutal death full length from the New Jersey tech masters. It's easily a crowd pleaser, with great presence, structure and instrumentals that will satisfy nearly any fanatic of the genre. Matricide is definitely worth your time if you're a fan of the previous release and it deserves to be listened to.
Fave Tracks: 'Architect of Misery', 'Clouds of Rust', 'Torn from the Void'
For Fans Of: Dying Fetus, Skinless
**This release is available here!**
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-Review by: Dave Raffy
Musician, reviewer, fan & promoter
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