reaper239

[COLOR="#ADD8E6"]i did a review for this on another site, and i tend not to repeat myself, but this is so awesome that i just had to tell more people... especially since the website the other review is on no longer exists.

so, i haven't had much ocassion yet to really inundate my readers with my likes and dislikes. here is one possibly well known fact that you may not know: i am a metal head. through and through. from ac/dc and zz top to abacabb and zao (see what i did there? a-z, and a-z just in different time periods? yeah, i thought you'd like that). well my all time favorite death metal band is Becoming the Archetype, and their best (and latest) album is Celestial Completion. pimpin.

so, as previeously stated, BTA is like my favorite metal band of all time, and with good reason. here's a quick history lesson: their first album, Terminate Damnation,was this progressive death metal epic, an absolute peice of art. it had this almost orchestral sound through the whole album. from sweeping, gorgeous chord proggressions and classical sounding fretwork, to face melting riffs, thundering base, and bone crunching machine drums, this thing had it all. to this day one of the best works in the genre of metal that i've ever heard. here's an example from that album:
[video=youtube;CAlLE3oOu_c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAlLE3oOu_c&feature=related[/video]
and the whole album sounded like this, just that nasty sound that makes you want to jump in the pit and stomp and get stomped. then we have The Physics of Fire, their second studio release. this album had much more in the way of technical aptitude, more aof a showcse of skill, but i felt that Terminate damnation had more soul. regardless, they maintain a tradition of excellence that few other bands manage to achieve in any style of music. here's an example:
[video=youtube;t28QK1GPkF4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t28QK1GPkF4[/video]
as you can see, they maintain their edge. then we come to Dichotomy. another face pounder that doesn't venture far from the path they've set for themselves. still excellent, still awesome, listen:
[video=youtube;qwAJTr8OCIE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwAJTr8OCIE[/video]
as you can see, they don't stray far from their already established sound, but they do switch it up a little, moving more toward the epic track and less toward the hard grungy sound of their first album. then they gave us their single, Necrotizing Fasciitis:
[video=youtube;4xBBU1LF89g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xBBU1LF89g[/video]
now the review may begin:

if anyone thought that the sound of Necrotizing Fasciitis was going to be the sound of their latest album (me) those people (me) would find themselves pleasently surpised to be so happy to be wrong. not that an album in the vein of BTAs single wouldn't be welcomed and embraced, because it would no doubt be awesome and brutal, but what we were given was so much better that it's almost sad, because it will be so hard to top. Celestial Completion is Becoming the Archetype's fourth, and finest, studio release.

in the past BTA has held fast to the progressive death metal tenants: make it fast, make it hard, make it brutal, make it epic. of course, when everything's epic it's hard to stand out. and it would seem that our heros have realized that. they realized that and they did something about it: they did something different. now, long time fans (who for some reason would not have gotten it yet) need not fear as the guitars are just as brutal, the drums just as hard, and the vocals just as nasty, as in previous albums. but they seem to have loosened up in their song writing, like they really let the music that has inspired them inspire their writing. there is much more depth to their sound, much more variety, from their standard brutal technical death metal, to their usual epic sweeping instrumentals, to horns and digeridoos, to rat pack, this album is out there. but the writing is so skillfull and masterful that those sounds make the album. it seems playful, then brutal, then epic, then sweet.

the opening track sounds like it should be the intro song for a 50's era radio show. it sets the mood of the album supremely, gives it this sort of creepy vibe, but still leaves it soft and almost comforting. it seems very lovecraftian to me. it transfers seemlessly into The Magnetic Sky. the magnetic sky is more of their standard fare: hard, brutal, sweeping. the next two songs are similar in their structure, but maintain their own unique sounds. Jason Wisdom (lead vox/bass player) demonstrates some of his most brutal and beautiful vocals to date. when you hit track 5, Music of the Spheres (played by Count Seth) it's like being in the eye of a hurricane. finding refuge from the strom. the album maintains this relentless driving pace, and then track five is like a water cooled rag to a feverish forehead, relief. then the album picks up where it left off with elemental wrath, but here's where they start throwing the curves at you: they hit you over the head with vocal distortion, then work in some more "wave breaks" like track five into the song, using gentle guitar, piano, then some random background sounds and distortions that almost take you to another place in the song altogether. track six is the third part of of Requiem Aeternum known as Xenosynthesis (parts one and two were tracks five and six respectively). then you come to a harbor down under with invisible creature in track seven, which serves as an intro to Cardiac Rebellion in track eight, which has the rat pack section. the last two songs work in their standard fare, but still have the spirit of the album. take a listen to Cardiac Rebellion:
[video=youtube;QMCtDUq8VFE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMCtDUq8VFE[/video]
ah, good times.

so, i've been listening to them since around 2005, and i have to say, they are the best progressive death metal bands in the world, and i would argue metal in general. i give this album a 10/10[/COLOR]

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