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Category: Unique Leader Records

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The California Bay Area has long been a home to some of the most technical death metal around. The slow but inevitable dissolution of Necrophagist, the continuing studio hiatus of Odious Mortem, and the folding of Spawn Of Possession and more recently Brain Drill has acted as a catalyst for the formation of several domestic and international supergroups. Continuum from Santa Cruz was formed in 2009 by sometime Decrepit Birth guitarist Chase Fraser and is home to former members from Brain Drill, Inanimate Existence, and post-Jacoby Kingston Deeds Of Flesh. After several years of incubation Continuum debuted in 2015 with “The Hypothesis”. “Designed Obsolescence” harkens back to the halcyon days of pre-2005 when Unique Leader was a boutique label specialized in death metal exclusively. With Inherit Disease no longer under contract, Continuum is hellbent on replacing them as the label’s flagship act.

Fraser has surrounded himself with quite the talent. Riley McShane is also in Allegaeon and fronted Inanimate Existence for an album, Ivan Munguia has played with Odious Mortem, Nick Willbrand has recorded an album with Flesh Consumed, and Ron Casey is probably the most in-demand drummer of the last decade and a half. He, like Munguia, was involved with Brain Drill and appeared on their “Quantum Catastrophe”. With an assembly of this caliber “Designed Obsolescence” could’ve easily succumbed to masturbatory excess and egocentric indulgence, yet somehow it never does. Fraser is able to rein in everybody’s showboating tendencies and everything is always in service of the song. The only somewhat puzzling choice is placing Ivan Munguia on rhythm - instead of bass guitar. Willbrand is certainly up for the task but he’s no Jeroen Paul Thesseling, Linus Klausenitzer, Steve DiGiorgio, Michael Poggione, Erlend Caspersen, Giulia Pallozzi, or Éric Langlois. Which doesn’t make Continuum any less than a gathering of local mega talent and something that sounds right at home next to Omnihility, Equipoise, and latter-day Decrepit Birth as well as Canadian acts Augury, Beyond Creation, and First Fragment. For better or worse, Continuum is very much a product of its time.

Continuum takes more than a page or two from now-defunct Swedish act Spawn Of Possession and the shadow of “Cabinet” and “Noctambulant” looms large over “Designed Obsolescence”. Fraser and his men give it enough of a Californian flavor and his soloing is more than a little reminiscent of somebody like Jonas Bryssling. McShane for the most part sounds like Obie Flett from Inherit Disease but tends to alternate more between highs and lows. The swelling orchestral flourish in ‘Designed Obsolescence’ is a nice little touch that immensely enhances the atmosphere. The concept isn’t whole that novel as Soreption did it earlier on “Engineering the Void” in 2014 and bands as Fleshgod Apocalypse and Scrambled Defuncts have made it their entire raison d'être. ‘All Manner Of Decay’ is custodian to probably the best solo of the record. The bass guitar is felt more than heard but is allowed slightly more space in ‘Autonomic’. ‘Repeating Actions’ concludes with the same riff that opens ‘Theorem’ thus creating a semblance of inter-track continuity. The stars of Continuum are definitely Chase Fraser and drummer Ron Casey. The more progressive setup gives Casey is far more freedom to flex his muscles, whereas the narrow confines of Brain Drill restricted what he could do behind the kit. The Pär Olofsson artwork really drives home how apt the Spawn Of Possession comparisons are. At this point you’d imagine the scene having on moved on from Olofsson. Apparently not. For a band as forward-thinking as Continuum it’s surprising that they haven’t discovered Guang Yang, Aditia Wardhana, César Eidrian, Federico Musetti, Dusan Markovic, Monte Cook, or Johnson Ting yet.

It’s not so much a question about ability, either individually or collective, but whether Continuum will be able to differentiate itself enough from competition, foreign and domestic. While there are some mild New Age textures and sparse orchestral enhancements it remains to be seen how and if Continuum will be able to differentiate itself from similar acts as Inanimate Existence, and post-“Procreating An Apocalypse” Inherit Disease. Inanimate Existence is aesthetically different enough through its New Age spirituality imagery and Inherit Disease were among the earlier to push a dystopian futurist and technology-based lyrical concept. Not that that was in any way novel in and of itself. There was after all a little band called Fear Factory who did it earlier than anyone else. The concept of “designed obsolescence” has been commonplace in industrial design and economics for several decades and concerns the intentional planning of a product to become obsolete within a set timeframe as to generate long-term sales volume by repeat purchases of said product. The lyrics about the omnipresence of technology, artificial intelligence, the singularity, and the loss of identity in the digital matrix are interesting and certainly eloquent enough. There’s certainly something slightly ironic about an album title like this when Continuum is one among many such ventures and one bound to tie itself to a certain time-period.

Unique Leader remains one of the most reliable houses of quality death metal, although they arguably lost some of their luster when they started signing deathcore en masse. Continuum is as good as anything from the Unique Leader stable and that they sound like one or two bands that used to be on the label is probably not just a happy coincidence. As a product of the death metal arms race “Designed Obsolescence” sounds like a throwback to the bygone days of 2004-2005 when technical death metal was really taking flight as a genre after the release of “Epitaph” from Necrophagist. In fact Necrophagist would come to define the next decade even if they never came around to releasing that eagerly anticipated third album. Perhaps it is that drives bands like Continuum, the urge to fill that void left by Germany’s last important death metal band. It’s not a bad spot to be in, anyway. With the promotion department of Unique Leader behind them the best is yet to come for Continuum. Here’s hoping they further expand on what they’re pushing here. There’s potential aplenty, for sure.

Published on Leave a comment on Deeds Of Flesh – Live In Montreal

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The maiden (and, so far, only)  foray into visual media by California death metal trio Deeds Of Flesh embodies a lot, if not all, of what is wrong with mid-level label sanctioned extreme metal DVDs in general. Despite having a respectable setlist “Live in Montreal” shortsells the band, label, and genre in many ways. The DVD is low on worthwhile content and substantial features. The live portion, supposedly the product’s main selling point, of the DVD was recorded at Le Petit Campus, Montreal in 2004 – a student club that goes by the name Café Campus nowadays, has several notable defects. The package appears to be hastily thrown together in order to capitalize on the DVD craze. Sadly “Live in Montreal” screams amateur hackjob from each, and every party involved in the production of this package.

The main feature, and lion’s share, of the DVD is a live show from the Canadian leg of the “Reduced to Ashes” global touring campaign. The show in question was recorded at Le Petit Campus, Montreal in 2004 – a student club that now goes by the name Café Campus. It was shot on regular video since it was produced before the advent of High Definition, as a result the image quality tends to get grainy on larger screens. A single, mounted camera positioned in the middle of the venue was used to capture the show. Although there are a decent amount of wide, medium and close shots – all of it is just basic zooming. Since there are no actual close-up shots its impossible to see any of the rapid picking during the more intricate parts of the songs. Those expecting to see up-and-close drumming action are left wanting as there is no dedicated drum cam. This means that there are no shots whatsoever of Hamilton’s impressive stamina and endurance, and his nearly constant double bass footwork.

Truthfully, not all blame is to be placed at the director for “Live in Montréal” as Deeds Of Flesh themselves didn’t seem to have put any additional effort whatsoever in making this DVD special or different from similarly poorly put together packages in any conceivable way. There is no stage design (backdrop, banner, flags, or other props) to speak of – and there’s a complete lack of notable production values beyond the bare-bones capture of a live show. The setlist is a representative cross-section of the band’s catalog with only “Inbreeding the Anthropophagi” getting but a single track. The ominous introduction track, using a Christopher Young piece from the “Hellraiser II: Hellbound” soundtrack was a nice, but ultimately futile, effort on part of the band. While a live recording was indeed pined for the lack of extra features and worthwhile content is what make “Live in Montréal” as ill-conceived as it is. Even the sound options appear to be shortchanged. There are no sound options worthy of the name, and playing the DVD is only possible in basic stereo – forgoing the Dolby Surround 5.1 that was considered the widely accepted standard even by the time this DVD saw release. The main menu is beyond basic, as there’s no possibility to play just the show (discounting the “song selection” option, which isn’t the same thing).

Even though a second camera operator is briefly visible on-stage during ‘Human Trophies’, none of his shots ever appear on the DVD nor does he appear ever again after that. On top of that there are no edits, effects, transitions or ambient shots through out the entirety of the show, neither are there shots from the back, or side of the stage. It is unedited in the true sense of the word. Bobby Germain is credited as the reluctant director of the live show, and he, unsurprisingly, never directed anything again after partaking in this particular debacle. There was the possibility of a great production for “Live in Montréal” but nothing is made of the opportunity given, and the DVD delivers exactly what it says on the tin: a bare-bones capture of a live show. It is perhaps fitting that, like the music from Deeds Of Flesh, there’s nothing ornamental about “Live in Montréal”. Apparently no effort was made to make this an event. A wasted chance if there ever was one. Lindmark, Kingston and Hamilton are stellar musicians on their respective instruments, but “Live in Montréal” sadly, doesn’t reflect that in the slightest. It does anything but...

The DVD includes the official music video for ‘Crown Of Souls’ from the record of the same name. Curiously it omits any and all of the band’s prior music videos for the earlier albums. Specifically ‘Reduced to Ashes’ (from the album of the same name), and the unreleased ‘Indigenous To the Appaling (Mutinous Human’) from “Path Of the Weakening”. The ‘Crown Of Souls’ music video, directed by Benjamin Kantor, displays the sort of creativity that the rest of the DVD, in both content and presentation, sorely lacks. The “extra features” include the music video for ‘Crown Of Souls’ and the obligatory (and therefore instantly redundant) weblinks. That the latter was even touted as a feature was unforgiveable even by 2005 standards. The most damning aspect about “Live in Montréal” is that it has no additional bonus content besides the already very paltry so-called “extra features”.

No new artwork was allocated to make the DVD a recognizable stand-alone release. It remains puzzling as to why the Viking warrior artwork by Pär Olofsson from the “Crown Of Souls” album was reproduced in full as “Live In Montréal” has no connection to that release. The backsleeve, understandably, reproduced the cover artwork from the “Reduced to Ashes” album by Toshiro Egawa in full. This is only logical as it was that effort the band was promoting at the time of this DVD’s shooting. A lot of more care and effort should have invested on this DVD release.