Archspire - All Shall Align

December 16, 2011

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Sturgeon’s law states that 90 percent of everything is crud. The rule was formulated in response to the criticism that sci-fi literature is junk, but it applies to anything and everything in life. Applying the law to heavy metal, I have to sort through a lot of albums to find something good. Out of everything that is released, I might only get to 150 new albums in a year, so the chances of finding a gem like Archspire’s debut are minuscule.

It’s aggravating to think that I might easily miss an album like All Shall Align. When a particular album resonates so strongly with a person rather than a community, it necessitates its own entry in our Forgotten Gems column, or the Deciblog’s Justify Your Shitty Taste. On some level, this implies that reviews aren’t very valuable unless my taste (or your taste, or whoever’s taste) perfectly and improbably aligns with that of a reviewer. Even then, albums will be missed, lost in the cracks of the musical landscape. It’s a big reason why I personally try to spend at least half of my new album listening time on lesser-known bands.

As previously stated, Archspire have released a gem. It’s definitely technical death, and it adroitly blends elements of various tech death bands together. The rhythm guitar work varies from choppy and percussive to fluid and melodic. The blasting and double bass work are absurdly fast, but remain fluent and rhythmic rather than wooden or jittery. The hard to soft musical transitions are as natural as I’ve ever heard in this genre. Origin mixed with None So Vile is the best comparison I can come up with.

Sweep picking, hammer-ons, and hammer-offs are important tools in Archspire’s kit, and the techniques imbue the music with a spiraling quality. I don’t hear any jazz inflections, polyrhythm or irregular meters, but my sense of timing is awful. The technical tag is well earned, though, by the dedicated instrumentation, rapid shifts between song parts, and non-linear song structures. The songs do have many individual parts and riffs, and so some listeners will experience this as a total riff salad. For anyone who approaches this beast, take solace in the fact that it’s not as unfathomable as Brain Drill or Anomalous. It helps that the album is just 32 minutes long. For me, it ‘took’ a lot quicker than comparable albums from bands like Anomalous, Obscura, et al. I’d also recommend All Shall Align to a tech death newbie before Origin, Obscura, or Ulcerate’s latest efforts, too.

And here’s the part where I willingly but regretfully have to piss in some people’s Cheerios: All Shall Align is a better album than Entity, Omnivium, or The Destroyers of All. It’s better than any other big-name technical or progressive death album I’ve heard this year, and you can see where I’m going with this. Whenever I get so tired of sorting through copycats and D-grade retreads that I’m about to give it up entirely, an album like All Shall Align comes along, and reminds me why I put so much effort into searching for that elusive 10 percent.

— Richard Street-Jammer

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HEAR ALL SHALL ALIGN

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