Pronostic Engineer a "Chaotic Upheaval" of Technical Death Metal (Early Album Stream)
Pronostic offers an unexpectedly jubilant approach to technical death metal. As the band crafts deeply philosophical tales on their new album Chaotic Upheaval, they do so with an obviously joyful approach to a genre that might seem to be the antithesis of that. This album will kick your ass, I should clarify, but it puts a smile on your face all the while–the Montreal melodic technical/progressive death metal outfit have mastered this improbable art. Even on repeated listens, Chaotic Upheaval continuously surprises, at first astonishing with sudden shifts and new sonic territory, and then later revealing hidden intricacies. By the time you hit the saxophone solo on “Massive Disillusion,” it should be obvious something special is taking place. Step into the gleeful madness early with our full premiere below.
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The creativity is a full-band effort: though the incredibly intricate guitar playing is definitely a highlight — especially the harmonies — drums, bass, and vocals play key roles in shaping how this record sounds. Xavier Sperdouklis’s fretless bass roams over the guitar tracks with confident free will, sometimes taking the lead to hone in on his glorious tone. Meanwhile, drummer Samuel Santiago (ex-Gorod) shifts between blinding speed and a groovy, ghost-note laden feel to match the album’s rapidly changing emotional state.
There’s a lot of optimism in Chaotic Upheaval, but also disillusionment, and that’s not the only duality. Pronostic sets up a variety of contrasts — high versus low vocals, blazing speed versus musing mid pacing, inspirationally melodic versus nihilistically pummeling — and then seemingly explores every possible permutation of them. Hell, they’ve even tapped Fleshgod Apocalypse’s Francesco Ferrini to bring synthesizers and strings into their arsenal. They’re well armed to plunge into what it means to exist in the modern world, and that’s exactly what Chaotic Upheaval does, delivering occasionally grim messages with unquestionably enthusiastic death metal.
The band comments:
Our new album is a representation of several problems that people are going through every day. We are evolving on many levels, but regressing in other ways. People are being divided and choose to believe in comforting lies than hurtful truths. Chaotic Upheaval was inspired by the last couple of years, which have been difficult times for most of us. The lyrics on the album discuss topics such as mental health struggles, sickness, pollution, regrets that consume us, difficult relationships, and modern political and technology-related ills that seem to ail us.
We hope that our new content will allow people to sit back and reflect on these sensitive subjects. We want them to know that they are not alone and hopefully are able to help individuals that are going through difficult moments in their lives to find a glimmer of hope and light at the end of the tunnel.
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Chaotic Upheaval releases April 12th independently via Bandcamp.
