BLEED THE FUTURE review - Such lethality

(Reviewed by Melody Werner)

Bleed the Future is a 2021 technical death metal album from Vancouver titans, Archspire. Marking their fourth full-length record, and third with Season of Mist, it was met with critical acclaim and has been quite popular. Snagged a few end of year honorifics from AngryMetalGuy and suchlike. Well, I saw it on--uh, I think I was trying out that dogshit YouTube Music app at the time--and thought that it looked cool. So I tried one of the singles, "Drone Corpse Aviator". It went into rotation, after settling with me. Then I chomped down on the full LP. And it went into rotation.

With 2021 having been an impeccable year for tech death, if nothing else, the most immediate concern might be if Archspire can stack up. And, y'know--I already crowned Impermanence my AOTY for 2021, so I definitionally don't think that this meets it. However, this is not for lack of trying, or for lack of outstanding performances. Where Stortregn opted for adventurous wonder across a dangerous yet stunning cosmos, Archspire dig into nothing but the negative. Fear. Lethality. So it is very abrasive, but the performances are so impressive without becoming impersonal, and the riffs are absolutely sick enough to headbang to.

One of the things that makes me sad as a lifelong metalhead (even if a fair amount of that life was spent with largely dogshit nü metal) is that it feels like nothing can ever surprise me anymore. At least sonically in a way that provokes the terror that can come the first time listening to extreme metal (I can absolutely have my socks knocked off by some cutting lyrics). And while I like that in some ways--I can fall asleep to practically any metal album, which is kinda cool--I still want that sense of danger. I want my chest to feel like it's bound to burst open. Archspire deliver on that here with Bleed the Future. It is so relentless, crushing, and fucking monstrous--but also phenomenally cathartic. Look. I love some trad heavy metal every now and then where the sinister edge is more playful than truly hellish. But goddamn if this record didn't make me feel like my body was gonna cave in the first time. It's great stuff that I honestly really needed last year, because it felt so real. 2021 was not easy listening. It was the most depraved, filthy, piss-infected temporal shithole since... well, 2019, personally. (Not because 2020 wasn't obviously awful, but because 2019 was fundamentally despicable on a deeply emotional level for personal reasons I will not go into publicly for a long time.) So yeah, I wouldn't trade this for something more fun or hooky in a heartbeat.

That's not to say there isn't any fun to be had with Bleed the Future. On repeat listens, when you're less under siege by the ferocity, it is very easy to jam along with. That being said, the undercurrent of horror remains there, without question, the whole time. Especially when the vocals (from Oli Aleron) break down into incomprehensible, bestial shrieks. Great stuff. Also, major kudos to Dean Lamb & Tobi Morelli (on guitars), Jared Smith (on bass), and Spencer Prewitt (on drums) for their outrageous performances.

As far as highlights are concerned... the whole thing is pretty incredible. "Abandon the Linear" is the one I personally find myself coming back to individually most often, but it's all great. And the sequencing provides a strong pace. At 31 minutes, it is the perfect length for something that doesn't aim for more complex emotions (at least, in this way, imo). It's the kinda length where one weak length could capsize the whole project, and it really feels like they all do their damndest to make sure that this fiery tracklist is nigh pristine.

While I can't think of any big sticking points against this album, I did not have the same tug with it that I had gotten from Impermanence, or Deceiver, or I LIE HERE BURIED WITH MY RINGS AND MY DRESSES. So I'm not confident now in giving this a perfect rating, even though I do think it is a fuckin' rock solid slab of gruesome excellence. But a 9.5/10? That sounds right to me.

Must-listen

Summary:

Unending brutality that lurks in unspeakable darkness and will have you white-knuckled for the full half hour listen.