Perpetuation

Perpetuation is the third album by Derelict, a technical death metal band from Montreal, Quebec. Derelict experienced a relative breakthrough in the saturated genre of technical death metal with their third album, Perpetuation, and with very good reasons. The instrumentation all around is fantastic and professional and the lyrics are evoking. Helping to build their unique and memorable style are the use of seven strings guitars, fretless bass, and solid production values.

Derelict’s musicians have no lack of skill or musical competence when it comes to shredding on both guitars and bass and tearing it up on the drum set. The riffs are absolutely gold –no- platinum, on Perpetuation and have great tone and production. Every single riff is wonderfully designed and catchy down to the last note. This might be due to their propensity for using string picking and finger tapping over chord-heavy guitar riffs. The bass is audible and provides solid rhythmic ambience to the otherwise overwhelming brutality of the other instruments, helping the music to strike a balance. The fact that a fretless is used help to add a unique twist to the sound as indicated by the intro on “Digital Birthright.” The drums are something fierce on this album and have a lot of teeth, are also played with great finesse and timing. The drummer flawlessly assists in the numerous tempo changes on each track while adding in their own flair. A copious amount of double bass is used but it does not drown out the rest of the music and provides a suiting back drop for the break neck speeds that the band moves at. Broken beats and accents are nailed at every opportunity and really shine forth on Olympic and Shackles of Indoctrination.

One very important point of the music and my favorite are the words and verses that Derelict use in their music. They audibly and clearly express their utter discontentment and contempt of many aspects of modern society including political corruption, abuse of employees and workers, economics, and the general, ingrained apathy of Western society. Thought-provoking, exhorting, scathing, and fiery, Derelict supply no mercy for the qualms they have with the world. For example, in “Digital Birthright,” they criticize the modern generations' use of social media when they say “Create nothing new, Become nothingness, Repeat gibberish, Searching for a savior in half-baked lists of random musings, Intermittent progress, a tell-tale sign of muted weakness.”

Through all of this excellent playing, there is but one gripe to be had; the guitar solos and some of the leads are somewhat lacking. For examples, the solos Intricate Decay and Spoils of War seem out of place and don’t really match the other notes being played by the rhythm section. However it is a minor hitch in the music as the solos on Expiry, Shackles of Indoctrination, and Yours To Surpass are superb and easily overshadow those few shortcomings.

The competent instrumentation and exhorting lyrics prevent Derelict’s style from ever becoming weary on the listener. Every song is fresh, exciting, and different from the last. The use of seven string guitars and in-your-face drumming really help to drive home the anger and justifiable angst in Derelict’s lyrics. Perpetuation has 12 songs so it’s a lengthy album, which is nice because you will not want it to end. If have you not at least listened to a song or two from the album, do yourself a favor and go rectify that. If you like what you hear, pick up the album from the band’s Bandcamp or from iTunes.

“A nuclear reactor exploding with finesse”, this is probably how I would depict Derelict, Montreal’s technical death metal machine.

They probably have enough firepower in their music to wipe entire cities off the map, but their control over it is so great that they will only let it loose on the villain and spare the innocent. Trust them. Or should you?

In 2012, Derelict unleashes its third full length and fifth release, Perpetuation. While their previous effort Unspoken Words was released through Year of the Sun Records, the new opus is an independent release, aka DIY, aka distributed by the band. Does it mean that the album was not good enough to be signed? Definitely not: unless it was a personal choice from the band, it’s a real surprise to see that such an excellent album didn’t generate more interest from solid labels. Fortunately enough, we all know in 2012 that independent artists don’t need a label to produce an album, and metal history shall prove once more that classics are chosen among the fans.

Perpetuation is like a box of your favorite candies: you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for when you’re in search for excellent technical death metal. On the surface, it has a polished production with low ends, upfront growls and very distinct channels to hear every single instrument. On the inside, it might sounds opaque and inaccessible at first, but it contains a certain variety of songs and enough melodic solos to keep you coming back. Songs like the title track, Expiry and Ergogenic have a general “straightforward” death metal feeling, while other songs like Spoils of War, Yours to Surpass, or Digital Birthright have more odd time signatures or song structures. Finally, the album contains at least one guitar passage, a tapping routine on the song Olympic, that is so well crafted as to become “the” memorable moment of the album.

The musicianship is brilliant. Rather than being hard hitters, the Derelict guys are all about finesse. Certain levels of details and skills are expected in this music style, but from a methodology perspective Derelict are embracing it with control and precision. We could easily think that Jordan Perry (drum) or Max Lussier (guitar) are playing jazz on their video performances if we didn’t have the sound or if we forgot about their metal shirts. Don’t get me wrong here, for I think Perry’s fast but natural drumplaying, as well as Lussier’s exquisite guitar solos “floating” in the mix are giving an incredible flavor to the music.

What roots the music to its visceral nature is without a doubt Eric Burnet’s vocals. The quality and power delivered through his textured deep growl is something many screamers from any metal genre are dreaming to achieve one day.

As if the musicianship wasn’t great enough, Sébastien Pittet (previously with Augury) plays all bass lines on this album. I point this out because this is a great bass player, but also because listening to the bass guitar on Perpetuation will make everyone wants to play bass guitar. A case in point, on The Iridium Layer song, the very joyful, almost folky bass playing drives the whole machine into action like good old Steve Harris.

It might not be a surprise to learn that Derelict recorded Perpetuation with Chris Donaldson. The name should sound familiar since he is also responsible for producing albums from Cryptopsy, Vengeful, The Agonist and Insurrection, among others, as well as Derelict’s previous album Unspoken Words.

Recommended for fans of Neuraxis, Augury, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Decrepit Birth.

- theBlackHull
Originally written for blog.metalmadeincanada.ca

Derelict is a band that always amazed me by the diversity of their releases. I got into their music after the release of their last album, Unspoken Words, which was excellent. By then, they had already released two full-lengths and one ep, which all sounded nothing alike. With Perpetuation, this statement stays true as it incorporates even more influences into Derelict’s sound while still being the logical evolution to Unspoken Words.

What strikes me the most with this record is the overwhelming fury and emotion that’s unleashed throughout the album. It’s even more crushing than before, with even more blast beats and fast parts. That being said, Perpetuation’s overall feel is very special, something that could already be felt on Unspoken Words. It’s full of anger, yet never delivers it in a negative approach. Just like most songs on Unspoken Word, there’s a constant feel of hope and activism reigning there. Derelict is not a fantasy-oriented band. Its substance is very down to earth. It doesn’t feel like this band wants to murder people. It feels like they want to annihilate corruption and provide freedom. I know a thing or two about their lyrical content and I can say the intended sociopolitical message is shining bright in all the strength of these new songs. Technically speaking, the guys have clearly stepped up and pushed their own boundaries. The drumming is ever more creative and precise and Max’s guitar work is astonishing. The most attention-grabbing part of his songwriting style is the great amount of melody in the riffs and the solos, which are even more elaborate than before.

On a more guttural note, Derelict’s frontman, Eric Burnet, never disappoints. As expected, his vocal delivery on this album is powerful and suits the music perfectly. The choice of rhythmic patterns is definitely accurate and there’s just enough variations to keep things interesting. I’d like to point out the professionalism and dedication that this guy puts in his vocal approach. Anyone who’s seen Derelict live knows how Eric never lacks stamina throughout a whole performance. The fact that he manages to sound almost exactly as he does on cd when singing live is also very impressive. It shows how a flawless technique pays more than any sort of technological support. Plus it’s refreshing not to hear countless layers of voices in the mix to compensate lack of natural power.

On another hand, it’s not very surprising to see Cryptopsy’s Chris Donaldson credited for the production of this monster as he’s become a professional at producing clear, crushing, and well- balanced mixes. A lot of my favourite albums have his name on their sleeve somewhere and it obviously had some influence on my appreciation of the music. It’s still the case with Perpetuation as every instrument stands out and can be fully enjoyed. The bass guitar is, for once, not an exception. While it might not have everything to do with the engineering job only, the low frequencies’ fretless madness is something surprisingly bold on Perpetuation. This is something new, as bass lines never really caught my attention that much on previous records. It definitely stands out on this one and its technical prowess is highly appreciable. The drums are pounding and the guitar tone sounds deliciously familiar, but this is just business as usual.

All in all, Perpetuation feed us with everything that we learned to love about Derelict’s sound on Unspoken Word, but in an even more elaborate way, with new influences blended in an album jam packed with inspired riffs and progression. This almost 45 minutes long album is a great example of how entertaining and interesting modern death metal can be when well-executed. It’s energetic, varied, consistent, and, most importantly, refreshingly authentic.