[Cover art by Noah Cutter Meihoff]
It’s been more than 40 years since Watchtower really ushered in the age of tech metal with their debut Energetic Disassembly, and in all those years, the techy arms race has impacted nearly every corner of heavy metal. From Dream Theater and Fates Warning to Death, Anata, and Defeated Sanity, the desire to be really great at playing one’s instruments has resulted in some of metal’s most exciting and “hey, check THIS out” moments. There’s even technical doom metal (but sadly no sign of technical sludge…).
It should come as no surprise that the three guys in Dissimulator excel at their craft, as they bring quite the pedigree, having also spent time in acts as varying as Atramentus, Chthe’ilist, Exxûl, and many others. Give these guys a genre, and they succeed, it seems, but there’s no sense that they’re touring styles at all. If anything, Dissimulator further proves their instrumental prowess: guitarist/vocalist Claude Leduc sounds like he was born to play exactly these types of snappy, twitchy thrash riffs and rippin’ solos; bassist Antoine Daigneault dances and pwongs all over the place; and drummer Philippe Boucher plays with extreme punch, blasting and hammering away with pure glee without missing a beat during the time-trickier passages. Add in Leduc’s gruff, dry vocal delivery (and occasional robot vocals), and you’ve got the makings of some seriously good techy violent fun.
The vocals aren’t the only thing here with a bit of a dry presentation (in a good way), as the guitars are also produced with a relatively lower gain clarity that greatly benefits the spryness of the riffs. Think of the way Satan’s guitar work comes across that much better because they aren’t overloading things with too much distortion, only for techy death/thrash instead of trad. It’s a zero goop, nowhere-to-hide approach, meaning the band really has to be super precise to succeed.
Thankfully, they succeed not only through their obvious technical abilities, but by writing a tractor trailer’s worth of seriously cool shit for the listener to enjoy. They also ensure that just about every tune runs the gamut from blasting fury to proggier diversions or “smartly ignorant” stuff. “Hungry Ghosts” might begin in sassy, groovier terrain, but still finds plenty of time for blasting material and sci-fi vocals; the title track blazes into existence but effortlessly shifts to caveman pit action and knotty prog; and “Neon Metropolis” kicks off with an almost beatdown vibe before it shifts to an FTL Voivod feel–it’s wild. More than anything else, Artifice Dissolves just exudes personality, and that can be heard in every last detail of the record. And there are a lot of details on this record.
The only downside here is that stuff does tend to run together after a while, but at a rather brisk 46 minutes, Artifice Dissolves never outwears its welcome. If anything, the quality of just about every single passage here means you’ll be constantly entertained, even if you don’t always know what song you’re on without checking the tracks.
That minorest of minor quibbles aside, Artifice Dissolves is further proof that the techier corners of metal are alive and well, and that sometimes those corners are fun for reasons that don’t make your fret hand cramp up. Dissimulator writes progressive death/thrash for folks that might not think they like progressive death/thrash, seamlessly blending a moshier mindset with classic tech metal.
