Soaring clean chords slathered in chorus sweep back and forth, from right channel to left and back again. Then, the bottom drops out, plunging us into a melee of overdriven palm-muted chords and coordinated double-bass/cymbal blasts. It is this kind of juxtaposition with which Irreversible Mechanism orchestrates an intricate ceremony of opposites: clean and distorted, fury and restraint, sung and screamed.
Numerous bands are ascribed the genre tag of progressive technical death metal, yet the technical aspect often bogs down many of these acts. Irreversible Mechanism evades this fate by achieving equilibrium across the triumvirate of the technical, the progressive, and the death metal. Weaving together disparate parts achieves this end to maximum effect, such as overlaying cleanly sung vocals with intense guttural growls. The fusion of these styles evinces their individual proficiency as band members, as well as superior song-writing skill.
To make the extremely technical interesting is no simple feat, yet Irreversible Mechanism excels in this area. In addition to their mastery of the technical, Irreversible Mechanism displays a level of confidence within their craft by taking risks. Just when you think the song will conclude with a beautifully harmonized ascending guitar and bass progression, similar to the song’s start, you plummet back into the chasm of high speed palm-muted shredding and unforgiving double-bass bombardment.
Blood Music released Immersion on Friday, September 14.
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