Soreption - Engineering the Void

1. Reveal the Unseen
2. The Nature of Blight
3. Breaking the Great Narcissist
4. A Speech to Survival
5. Utopia
6. Monumental Burden
7. I Am You
8. Engineering the Void

Swedish technical death metal is not a familiar and comfortable genre for me, and the genre itself is limiting to explain why I like this particular album. With a logo that is decipherable and the album cover that is relatively mellow, I like it because it's contemporary. Established in late 2005, this contemporary band trump a lot of tech death forerunners (I dare not veer to compare Necrophagist [to avoid a fear-of-life dilemma]).

Engineering the Void is the album that have captivated me most in 2014 so far. Presenting technical precision with a groovy feel embedded in dynamic composition. Ample sweeps on the guitar, with some awesome slapped bass, insanely fast guitar riffs and technical double-bass drumming. The vocals are audible with a high level of production. 8 tracks being just enough to captivate me by not being too long with ambient, undecipherable samples and fillers that usually just gets in the way in the genre. The surprisingly audible vocals breaks my face, whilst retaining that tech death feel.

The power from technical precision is sustained throughout the album. Engineering the Void comprises of 8 very complete songs. Full-bodied songs that is usually lacking for me in technical death metal. In essence Engineering the Void veer from any excessive bullshit.

The second half of Breaking the Great Narcissist contains a morbid synth that progress into an awesome melody, quickly shattered by double-bass drumming and thunderous vocals. A very weird synth fill in Monumental Burden builds to seemingly endless sweeping on the guitars. The title track Engineering The Void present a guest vocal appearance from Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), and together they sound very angry.

Soreption released Deterioration of Minds in 2010 and Illuminate the Excessive EP in 2007. I rate Engineering the Void a 8/10, mostly for presenting a very pragmatic album.