Review by chrisc7249 on June 22, 2022.

NO STONE SACRED!!

I think a good chunk of tech death fans are completely unaware of Ahtme's existence. This is rather disappointing. I myself knew nothing about them until this album was announced, and then I immediately judged a book by its cover by looking at their last album with the dumb album cover and the name… Ahtme. Whatever that means. Anyway, looks are deceiving. This album came out and I listened to it, and at first, I didn't like it. Then I did end up liking it. Now, I'm pretty close to loving it. While Ahtme isn't recreating the genre of tech death, they do a lot of things the genre is known for very well. For this reason, "Mephitic" needs to be on every tech death fan's listening rotation.

Ahtme is one of those "a little bit of everything" kind of bands. To pinpoint one specific band they mould their sound after would be a tough task; Ahtme's sound is mainly a clusterfuck of influences put together into one complete package. The riffs remind me of what a modern Psycroptic would sound like if they didn't turn to absolute shit after their first two albums. The pinch harmonic use reminds me heavily of Spawn of Possession. There's also a good amount of some other notable bands such as The Faceless, Suffocation, and some Decapitated, but I honestly have barely listened to Decapitated. As you can envision, this is groove-laden tech death that keeps the listener occupied with chunky riffs served up on a silver platter and delivered directly to your skull with a loud smack. I always say that the backbone of ALL metal should be its riffs, and Ahtme has done a good job of writing a ton of memorable riffs that will surely get your neck to move.

As for the lead guitars, there's some noodling but not a lot like one would expect from tech death. The pinch harmonics are absolutely on point on this album though! I love me some well placed queedles and quaddles (yes, this is what I call pinch harmonics on my own time), and on "Mephitic," they've lathered the album with good lead work. Overall, this is mainly a guitar driven album over everything else. The bass and drums are obviously there, but neither one does anything completely spectacular to stand out. The drumming is impressive, but run of the mill for tech death at this point as it seems pretty much every drummer in this genre is superhuman. The bass unfortunately doesn't offer much and just follows the guitar, which I imagine is not an easy task, but alas, it would have been nice to hear the bass make a few more statements on this album.

The vocals are pretty basic. I will say that the vocalist does sound pretty pissed off on a lot of this album and the lyrics match his angry tone (at least the ones you can understand because I can't find the lyrics for this album anywhere.) It's amusing when a death metal vocalist sounds like he had a really bad day and is expelling his anger through inhuman bear growls in a studio over some heavy riffing.

The production and mixing sounds good to me! I've already stated before in my reviews that I am far from a production snob. I honestly am fine with the sound of an album 99 times out of 100. Rarely does production put me off of an album, and this one is no different. Everything sounds full and healthy, and the guitars especially have a wicked nasty tone that reminds me of what a modern Necrophagist would sound like.

It's a great album, in the end. I guess I was a little turned off by it in the beginning because I personally find the second half to be better than the first half - which is always an oddity to me, because I just assume bands put all their best songs in the front of the album to keep people listening. The first half has since grown on me, but the second half, mainly the last four songs, are absolutely killer, man. That being said, there aren't any weak points to the album. Perhaps it's a little repetitive, but it's short so it doesn't get boring. There's no stupid interludes on the album, so I see this as an absolute win in all regards. It's just a fun album. A lot of catchy songs with good riffs and vocal patterns, a solid technical edge and a lively, hearty sound to go with it all. I really can't complain. Put this on your radar if you haven't already heard it and you like riff-first technical death metal. You won't be disappointed.

FFO: Psycroptic, Soreption, Suffocation

Favorite song: 'Valley of the Gourds'

Final score: 8 out of 10

Review by chrisc7249 on June 22, 2022.

NO STONE SACRED!!

I think a good chunk of tech death fans are completely unaware of Ahtme's existence. This is rather disappointing. I myself knew nothing about them until this album was announced, and then I immediately judged a book by its cover by looking at their last album with the dumb album cover and the name… Ahtme. Whatever that means. Anyway, looks are deceiving. This album came out and I listened to it, and at first, I didn't like it. Then I did end up liking it. Now, I'm pretty close to loving it. While Ahtme isn't recreating the genre of tech death, they do a lot of things the genre is known for very well. For this reason, "Mephitic" needs to be on every tech death fan's listening rotation.

Ahtme is one of those "a little bit of everything" kind of bands. To pinpoint one specific band they mould their sound after would be a tough task; Ahtme's sound is mainly a clusterfuck of influences put together into one complete package. The riffs remind me of what a modern Psycroptic would sound like if they didn't turn to absolute shit after their first two albums. The pinch harmonic use reminds me heavily of Spawn of Possession. There's also a good amount of some other notable bands such as The Faceless, Suffocation, and some Decapitated, but I honestly have barely listened to Decapitated. As you can envision, this is groove-laden tech death that keeps the listener occupied with chunky riffs served up on a silver platter and delivered directly to your skull with a loud smack. I always say that the backbone of ALL metal should be its riffs, and Ahtme has done a good job of writing a ton of memorable riffs that will surely get your neck to move.

As for the lead guitars, there's some noodling but not a lot like one would expect from tech death. The pinch harmonics are absolutely on point on this album though! I love me some well placed queedles and quaddles (yes, this is what I call pinch harmonics on my own time), and on "Mephitic," they've lathered the album with good lead work. Overall, this is mainly a guitar driven album over everything else. The bass and drums are obviously there, but neither one does anything completely spectacular to stand out. The drumming is impressive, but run of the mill for tech death at this point as it seems pretty much every drummer in this genre is superhuman. The bass unfortunately doesn't offer much and just follows the guitar, which I imagine is not an easy task, but alas, it would have been nice to hear the bass make a few more statements on this album.

The vocals are pretty basic. I will say that the vocalist does sound pretty pissed off on a lot of this album and the lyrics match his angry tone (at least the ones you can understand because I can't find the lyrics for this album anywhere.) It's amusing when a death metal vocalist sounds like he had a really bad day and is expelling his anger through inhuman bear growls in a studio over some heavy riffing.

The production and mixing sounds good to me! I've already stated before in my reviews that I am far from a production snob. I honestly am fine with the sound of an album 99 times out of 100. Rarely does production put me off of an album, and this one is no different. Everything sounds full and healthy, and the guitars especially have a wicked nasty tone that reminds me of what a modern Necrophagist would sound like.

It's a great album, in the end. I guess I was a little turned off by it in the beginning because I personally find the second half to be better than the first half - which is always an oddity to me, because I just assume bands put all their best songs in the front of the album to keep people listening. The first half has since grown on me, but the second half, mainly the last four songs, are absolutely killer, man. That being said, there aren't any weak points to the album. Perhaps it's a little repetitive, but it's short so it doesn't get boring. There's no stupid interludes on the album, so I see this as an absolute win in all regards. It's just a fun album. A lot of catchy songs with good riffs and vocal patterns, a solid technical edge and a lively, hearty sound to go with it all. I really can't complain. Put this on your radar if you haven't already heard it and you like riff-first technical death metal. You won't be disappointed.

FFO: Psycroptic, Soreption, Suffocation

Favorite song: 'Valley of the Gourds'

Final score: 8 out of 10

Review by Luka on January 17, 2003.

It's bands like this that make you reassess your whole idea of what music really is. After one listen the average person would be content to brand this whole album as nothing but "noise", but what does the average person know? Burnt By The Sun is another valiant newcomer to the Relapse family, infusing young life into their roster with a bold distinction. Pulling in influences from a rich variety of extreme music styles (typically those ending with "core"), they've busted out a promising album of chaotic metal.

This is not a disc for those short of attention span. The music is a clamor of polyrhythmic arrangements, insane drumming, and powerful vocal assaults so your best bet is to focus on the rhythm and let the confusing guitar sections and the rest fall into place. The songs move at almost an incomprehensible pace, so as soon as you figure out what's going your song is already over. In fact, the entire album is over in less than thirty minutes. So, you better perk up your ears and give it undivided attention. Slow parts are rare but they do advent in the form of heavy, bass-driven, chugging riffs that you can actually head-bang to. The absence of any kind of intelligible song structure makes "Soundtrack..." an album you can virtually listen to a hundred times without getting bored. In other words, there is something new in every listen. My favorite pick would be the final heavy anthem titled ’Human | Steamroller.’ Indeed like some monstrous metal steamroller, it chugs along loaded with fast, heavy riffs and plenty of hooks and groove.

While the album may not change your entire perspective on life, like the ambitious title suggests, the lyrics show enough sense and intelligence to make you stop and think for a while. Thematically, they talk about the common faults of society and generally the same pessimistic, negative prattle that we get from most metal bands, but here it's done with a slightly tongue-in-cheek attitude, apparent from some of the comical song titles, ie: ‘Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom;" ‘Boston Tea-Bag Party."

Bottom Line: An extremely complicated work of art but some of the most original extreme metal Relapse has ever put out.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 9.5
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 7
Overall: 6

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Luka on January 17, 2003.

It's bands like this that make you reassess your whole idea of what music really is. After one listen the average person would be content to brand this whole album as nothing but "noise", but what does the average person know? Burnt By The Sun is another valiant newcomer to the Relapse family, infusing young life into their roster with a bold distinction. Pulling in influences from a rich variety of extreme music styles (typically those ending with "core"), they've busted out a promising album of chaotic metal.

This is not a disc for those short of attention span. The music is a clamor of polyrhythmic arrangements, insane drumming, and powerful vocal assaults so your best bet is to focus on the rhythm and let the confusing guitar sections and the rest fall into place. The songs move at almost an incomprehensible pace, so as soon as you figure out what's going your song is already over. In fact, the entire album is over in less than thirty minutes. So, you better perk up your ears and give it undivided attention. Slow parts are rare but they do advent in the form of heavy, bass-driven, chugging riffs that you can actually head-bang to. The absence of any kind of intelligible song structure makes "Soundtrack..." an album you can virtually listen to a hundred times without getting bored. In other words, there is something new in every listen. My favorite pick would be the final heavy anthem titled ’Human | Steamroller.’ Indeed like some monstrous metal steamroller, it chugs along loaded with fast, heavy riffs and plenty of hooks and groove.

While the album may not change your entire perspective on life, like the ambitious title suggests, the lyrics show enough sense and intelligence to make you stop and think for a while. Thematically, they talk about the common faults of society and generally the same pessimistic, negative prattle that we get from most metal bands, but here it's done with a slightly tongue-in-cheek attitude, apparent from some of the comical song titles, ie: ‘Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom;" ‘Boston Tea-Bag Party."

Bottom Line: An extremely complicated work of art but some of the most original extreme metal Relapse has ever put out.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 9.5
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 7
Overall: 6

Rating: 7.5 out of 10