Artefect of Madness

I don't think there can be much doubt about it, this has to be the most technical and musically proficient black metal album ever unleashed. This probably the only black metal I've heard that could hold its own with the most technical death metal bands-- and that's a huge compliment in my books. Most of the songs alternate between inhumanly fast black metal and off-kilter progressive arrangements. The fast parts are very impressive, and reach a level of extremity that I don't think has ever been achieved before. On the whole they don't do all that much for me, however. They are played with incredible precision, but are mainly a show of speed and skill and aren't really all that interesting. The riffs in these faster parts function mainly as an accompaniment to the wall of drums, and don't sound all that complex. I could be wrong about this, though, mainly because the drums overwhelm everything else, making it difficult to really hear the riffs. A little of this stuff would have been great, but they overdo it a bit, in my opinion. It is the more progressive, discordant parts that really interest me, and these are frequent enough to keep me listening. If Abgott focused on these elements, I think they would be unmatched in black metal-- the sheer quality is far above anything else ever attempted in the genre. During these moments, they often sound like a more technical Enslaved or Voivod, and at other times I think I can hear a strong Meshuggah influence. There's a definite jazz influence in there, too, that is fully integrated into the music. It's obvious that these guys know their music very well, to the point where that can take elements from different genres without being self-conscious or obvious about it. The vocals are excellent, too, very convincing and executed with a lot of energy. The production is generally great, although the drums are a little high in the mix for my tastes, as I mentioned earlier. I read somewhere that the lyrics are atypical for black metal, but I actually find them to be pretty standard fare (just look at the song titles, one is called "Church of Necrophilism," I don't know if you can get more cliched than that). Their stage constumes are about as banal as possible, too. But, whatever, it's the music that counts, and there are moments on here that could rival anything else out there.