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Interval 02: Parallel Infinities - The Abscinded Universe (2014) is the second full-length album by US one man progressive death metal act Lascaille's Shroud. The album continues the science fiction themes of prior release Interval 01: Parallel Infinities - The Inner Universe (2013). Presumably as a follow-up concept album that means heavy inspiration from the novels of Alastair Reynolds and video games, although unlike the first album which drew on Mass Effect this one features elements of Bioshock Infinite, which a particular focus on the character of Elizabeth.
The prior album was an ambitious release of progressive death metal which also drew on electronic and symphonic elements, with a complete run-time of about 73 minutes. How does one top something like that so early in their career? Well the answer is simpler than you may think really; release a double album's worth of material to follow it up, with just over two hours of music in total. Oh, and include two over twenty minute compositions in that running time. And feature a ton of guest vocalists. And still release it under the free/name your price scheme (A CD release has recently been funded via the Indiegogo website, of which this reviewer is a proud contributor, but at the time of writing the album is only available digitally). Yeah...
The musician behind the project is called Brett Windnagle (also of Kingdoms of Flesh and more recently, Vermiform) and if his last album wasn't enough to convince you of his talent, then this follow-up, which from now on I'm just going to refer to as simply The Abscinded Universe, looks set to do the job. It's not going to be an easy listen even if you're already familiar with its predecessor and I believe you can be forgiven if you need to digest it in parts, perhaps between the two twenty plus minute epics which appear back to back in the middle of the tracklist, but there should be no doubt of Windnagle's compositional skill, as like with The Inner Universe he never wastes a second of the running time and if you can find a spare couple of hours to take it all in during a single sitting, well all I can really say is that it's not only very doable but also incredibly worth it.
The music itself comes across as having less influences from electronic music this time, but they are still present to a degree, as are symphonic elements although the album sees them used for effect only; it's never really the case that Brett takes his music into a full on symphonic death metal direction. Instead this is largely driven by the riffs across complex song structures, with soloing from both guitars and keyboards (performed by Tyler Sherrill of Steamforged), atmosphere elements, clean vocals and Bioshock Infinite dialogue all thrown in for added effect. The music sticks mostly to a death metal backbone, but as with The Inner Universe there are also shades of other extreme metal genres here and even a couple of places where the music is fast and melodic that brings mind to power metal.
The average running time of a Lascaille's Shroud track on The Abscinded Universe is in excess of seven minutes (some shorter ones were featured on The Inner Universe as well as the non-album single Colossal (2013)) so everything on here is at least a mini-epic in its own right. The exception would be the final track of the album The Guilt Reprisal, which is the only track between the two Interval albums that breaks the naming convention of a one word title following by a longer sub-title, which mostly consists of dialogue from Bioshock Infinite, following by a period of silence, then more dialogue as a hidden track. Most tracks exceed or come close to the ten minute marker, with War: A Congregation of Non-Existence passing twenty minutes and Agony: The Sad and Beautiful Face of Death going up to over twenty-five. The music remains incredibly focussed all the way and sounds utterly stunning in regard to everything from the production to the musicianship.
Brett has furthered the science fiction vibe in his music by applying effects to his growling vocals in some of the tracks, heard as early as the opening Integration: Into the Posthuman Continuum. I have to admit this was the one aspect of the album that I wasn't convinced by at first, but given the themes that Lascaille's Shroud's music revolves around I quickly came to appreciate just what Brett had achieved by doing this, although I can't get the image of a pissed off robot out of my head now (it carries a guitar laser gun too). That's what the effect comes across as, robotic. I'm not sure everyone is going to like the effect, but it's only semi-common on the album and most of the vocals sound as you'd expect, deep and powerful death growling.
There are a greater number of voices on The Abscinded Universe compared to the two featured on The Inner Universe, with seven in total. While Brett handles most of the growling he does have a couple of guests also doing growls/harsh vocals, but most guests are here to provide clean singing, with male and female voices featured in different tracks, with Agony: The Sad and Beautiful Face of Death, featuring the most (five). Given Brett's association with the Masters of Metal Productions label, it should be no surprise to find vocalists from the label's acts such as Judicator's John Yelland, Vermiform's Bryan Edwards, and Project: Roenwolfe's Patrick Hoyt Parris featured here, as well as Tony C who is/has been involved in all three of those acts among others.
Patience is definitely required to get the most out of The Abscinded Universe so I have to be fair, the album's appeal may be cut down somewhat by simply being too ambitious. Personally though I've found it to be one of the finest works of progressive death metal ever released; a rare case where the death and progressive elements are blended in such a way that the album should have equal appeal with fans from both crowds. You get bands such as Augury and Obscura that clearly have much more to do with death metal than their progressive sides and then you get the Opeth and The Advent Equation types that have more to do with prog and then you get Lascaille's Shroud who meets both half way. I very much doubt they'll be another album quite like this in 2014. I certainly can't foresee any other group releasing something with more ambition than this. The Abscinded Universe is easily one up on The Inner Universe - an album that I was already greatly impressed with - and I can't find any reason why five stars are not in order.
97/100
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/lascaille-s-shroud-the-abscinded-universe-t3322.html)