Subjected

It's absurdly rare that a band actually makes the jump to a legitimate label FROM Crash, rather than vice versa- Illogicist is one of those happy few who managed to evade a lifetime of cutout-bin shelf space in favor of Willowtip. 'Subjected', though, is still on that most unpleasant of labels, Crash; to be fair, if you listen to this album, you can easily tell that Illogicist is a cut above its labelmates in that case, but still, a Crash listing is usually so damning it's hard to get anywhere else.

Illogicist plays neoclassical-infused variety of proggy tech death, and though I said it's ahead of its Crash labelmates, it's still exactly as interesting as that description suggests. Illogicist tends to use what I call 'calculator riffs'- those bleeping, blooping, linear prog riffs that sound mostly like random notes being played in an ostinato pattern. The guitar theatrics on this album are pretty talented, of course; every song features dozens of weird, off-kilter, strangely timed, very technically advanced riffs, but none of them really tend to stick with the listener, especially because the rather lethargic drum and vocal performances don't make up for the lack of presence in the guitars.

I'd file 'Subjected' under the same heading that I would, say, 'Alice In Hell', in that it feels really much more like a tech demo than a real album. There's goofy neoclassical solos everywhere, the songs are pretty fundamentally unmemorable, and the musical emphasis is so squarely placed on the guitars that it's just really not much to listen to otherwise. This is about as silly and prog as I can possibly listen to before I throw the CD out the window- to be fair, it's an amusing listen from time to time when I just want to hear some wacky guitar shit like Sceptic, but most of the time I don't have that impulse.

The followup album was a significant improvement, but this is pretty skippable, though may be worth investigating just to see how they managed to escape the sinister clutches of Crash, where metal bands go to age and die.

Illogicist is a new Technical Death band hailing from Italy (surprise, surprise, they do have something else aside power metal). Of course like most technical albums, it might take a while to get into, but thats the point, to keep getting surprised every time you come back and listen to the album. And the lyrics, we get the treat of the philosophical, spiritual approach, which is a plus in my opinion. Just like a technical death album should be, this albums is filled with great leads, and a top notch performance from all band members. Production wise, the guitars are very prominent, but thats how it should be. But this brings a drawback on the sound of the bass and the drums, they are left a bit under. I honestly like this type of production, so i have no complains. The references to Atheist and Death can be heard a mile away, seriously...So i guess this is what simply brings down the punctuation, as they need a bit more originality. But i have no problems with bands emuling other bands, as long as they do it this well, so if you simply like any of the mentioned bands, and you simply want more of that, here you have a very good album to try out. If you want something different for your death metal catalog, check elsewhere.

Standout tracks:( The Soul Feeder, Introspection, Knowledge Curse)