A riveting mix of progressive and technical death metal, A Selfish Dream is one of those releases which may not have you falling back in love with the genres breeding it but certainly inspires a new appetite to go exploring them and the inspirations to the project such as Death, Cynic, Atheist, and Carcass. The new EP from LA based band The Replicate, it is a brief imagination stroking, ear striking proposal as unpredictable as it is highly enjoyable.
The Replicate is the brainchild of Sandesh Nagaraj whose CV includes being part of nineties Indian death metallers Myndsnare, Extinct Reflections, and Stranglehold. Uniting with a host of friends for his project, guitarist/bassist Nagaraj needs little time to grab the imagination and keen attention with A Selfish Dream, its opening track casting a web of sonic and technical temptation.
Chainsaw Of God instantly wraps a spicy groove around ears, a persistent lure soon joined by a canter of robust rhythms and the raw throated rasps of guest vocalist/lyricist Morgan Wells. His irritable yet compelling tones stand astride the driving beats of Ray Rojo and Nagaraj’s nagging riffs. It is a tenaciously magnetic affair especially when grooves with clinging spice entwine the impassioned ire of the track and a solo from William Von Arx which brings an almost sinister cosmic shade to the outstanding track.
The following Eugenicide has its own suggestive drama in sound and presence, grooves again evocatively wrapping the senses with an almost picturesque quality as the predacious gravelly tones of vocalist Jordan Nalley trespass ears with his rich words. Also featuring the dark alluring basslines of Kaitie Sly, the track is an absorbing, haunting assault as different in nature and captivating enterprise to its predecessor as it is similar in compelling invention.
A rawer edge and climate descends through The Saline next, its initial sonic intrusion the spark to another virulent canter twisted into a passage of varying energies and unpredictable imagination. Arun Natrajan takes on vocals and lyrics for the EP’s third song; he also providing a rapacious growl within a controlled yet tempestuous surge of enmity and corrosive yet inviting sound.
Completed by the short instrumental of its title track, a shimmering piece of emotional starkness, A Selfish Dream is as gripping as it is imposingly intrusive. Its briefness of length is the only niggle, each song successfully never pushing its stay but combined providing a mere ten minutes of excellence; a moment in time admittedly very easy to replay and en joy time and time again.
A Selfish Dream is out now @ https://thereplicate.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/thereplicateband
Pete RingMaster 18/01/2017
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
