To listen to and fully enjoy Analepsy requires a state of mind matching the above. The band’s wares are most effective when you’ve turned off your brain and you can be subsumed under its triumphant ignorance. And quite frankly, if you don’t do it yourself, this 37-minute butt seizure (I assume that’s what the band’s name means) will short-circuit all your thinky thoughts into monosyllabic drooling anyway. It’s best to switch the ol’ noggin off of your volition in this humble dumbdumb’s opinion.
Sorry, my brain is no work good from all the spins of sophomore album Quiescence.
Is this rawer than sewage with the lowest of unintelligible gurgles and trash cans pinging through your eardrums? Nay, ye cretin.
Is it flailing tonk-tonk technicality beset by the most beat-your-meat of beatdowns like a Defeated Sanity? Sorry, my little gutter fiend, but no.
Oooh, oooh is it a well-polished mid-tempo battering that sounds like an alien invasion? Why, yes, you sentient enema, it is! The general production is more in line with Krighsu than anything by Devourment. But if Krighsu is a horde of xenomorphs in the ceiling rapidly assaulting you and overwhelming your senses, Quiescence is more like the queen alien slowly but relentlessly lumbering after you and pissed the fuck off.
Get the picture yet? (How many questions is this stupid fucking guy going to put in one review?)
Hit play and don’t you dare sass me again!
“Locus of Dawning” opens with thundering rhythms and slick guitar runs before locking into a beast of a grooving chug. Just before the 2-minute mark, there’s a killer little solo followed by a stuttering bridge that perfectly segues into some gnarly chugging permitting ignorance to once again reign supreme. As the song winds down, it just gets slower and lower to pound the listener into the dirt. And that’s really the approach throughout the entirety of Quiescence. “Accretion Collision” ventures into some more technical waters and “Converse Condition” ramps up the speed a bit more, but ultimately Analepsy is about injecting a cocksure swagger into their grooves, rhythms, and riffs that are impossible not to make a loving stank face to. It’s also a great deal of fun to see them add in some strong but not overly flashy leads to help break up the beatings with a little drama and power.
Additionally, it seems like a safe assumption that the band really loves the classic movie Deliverance considering how much they like to make the guitars and vocals squeal like a pig. I can’t comment on whether they like doing that while lost in the woods in their tighty whities, but I guess you could ask. (Look at that, I managed to bring up a question without actually asking one.)
Acolytes of brutality will likely be thrilled to see Wilson Ng (Facelift Deformation), Angel Ochoa (Disgorge, Abominable Putridity) and Ricky Myers (Disgorge, SUFFO-FUCKING-CATION) as guests on the record. Ultimately, their contributions are a great nod to the scene but chances are pretty good that many listeners aren’t even going to notice the presence of these merchants of demonic emanations if they’re not looking at the credits. Distinguishing between extra-guttural gutturals and more piggly pig-squeals can be a tall order after all.
Closing out with the instrumental title track is a bit of an odd choice. Interlude tracks can be a real gamble but in a style that tends to be a little more one-dimensional, throwing this one into the middle would’ve been a welcome break and refresher. Instead, it closes on an anti-climactic note that feels like the band is trying to audition for the next Halo soundtrack. “Edge of Chaos” before it has a great build-up and structure that feels like a more natural closer.
Ultimately, that’s a minor quibble as this album constantly makes the head bang whether you want it to or not. So, I only have one question left for you:
WHY HAVEN’T YOU BOUGHT THIS, YET?!?!?!?!?
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I have both their previous album and EP and enjoy them both. Picking this up seems like a no brainer.