siLLy puPPy Tech death metal is one thing and progressive death metal is another but sometimes the two trajectories cross paths like a supply stop on the silk road so many centuries ago. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN has the perfect moniker for the modern world where A.I. threatens to become self-aware and take over the planet as we carbon-based lifeforms become expendable commodities but i digress. This Long Island, NY band has been around for just over a decade now and has tackled the dilemma of how to evolve death metal into the next phase like many a band struggling to take its compositional fortitude beyond the beefy machismo of incessant physicality.

Ever since Gorguts upped the ante there’s been a sort of arms race to seamlessly merge the world of progressive rock with the technical brutality of death metal and while many have failed in this daunting task, some like ARTIFICIAL BRAIN seem to have been born for this task. This quintet of deathly noise makers is unusual in that it features six members which includes the occasional use of a saxophone :o No worries death metal stalwarts, this is pummel your friggin’ brains out central with no signs of jazzy interludes interfering with the mission of unleashing blackened death metal riffage from the depths of Hades through sonic portals via modern technology.

I must say that this set of ten tracks successfully employs all the benefits of brutal death metal characteristic well with the progressive underbelly of a rock in opposition convention without sacrificing the lamb of death metal standards. Tough tightrope act i know but ARTIFICIAL BRAIN on its third and eponymously titled album seem to pull it off remarkably well after a tech death focused debut and a blackened atmospheric sophomore release. On this third installment of the ARTIFICIAL BRAIN universe everything comes together very well with a bizarre merging of the savagery of extreme metal bombast with a keen sense of rhythmic turbulence that is as unrelenting as a prostitute in the red light district of Amsterdam (OMG have you been there?)

This album really nails the holy trilogy of melding black metal, death metal and progressive rock into a holy union. Whether animals were sacrificed to achieve that remains a mystery but somehow this group of Long Islanders found the stabilizing elixir of sound to make this disco-death mess work so well. Everything is balanced perfectly with the tones, timbres and extremes of death metal in the sonority perfectly blending with the progressive compositional doughtiness. This album packs a punch for sure and is that really a tree emerging from the forest and giving the middle finger? Oh how my imagination gets out of control sometimes. Just listen to the track “Embalmed With Magma” and then you’ll get the gist of how this band has totally created a prog / death metal chimera of unthinkableness.

While a lot of death metal can sound the same to those not indoctrinated into its stealth bombing of the senses, close attentive listens can be quite rewarding since the genre demands a careful inspection of its mechanical underpinnings to differentiate it from a multitude of similarly hyperactive speed freaks. To perform such antics at these breakneck speeds is impressive indeed and ARTIFICIAL BRAIN has either sold out to A.I. to make this album possible or is indeed a very talented posse of carbon-based human lifeforms that has done its homework in constructed a chimera of utmost beauty blackened by the harshness of aural ugliness. Well, any way you slice it i’m in. What really works about this is a) the growly vocals are low in the mix b) the production is stellar and c) the musicianship is above average. Not a masterpiece of the ages but an excellent proggy death metal experience for sure.

adg211288 I'm sure that each of us has a few genres that we can usually listen to something new from and take at least some level of enjoyment from it. For me it's black metal and power metal. I'm also sure that on the opposite side of that there's a few genres that we're very picky about. One of mine is death metal. Death metal is one of those genres where if an album hasn't grabbed me within a couple of tracks, I'll probably switch it off and find something else to listen to, unless I'm forcing myself to review it. I actually like death metal a lot, but this probably happens to me with eight, maybe even nine out of ten albums I try. I find that most albums come over as being very much 'heard it all before' (especially true of the old school types), or totally soulless and lacking any kind of substance (melodic death metal and brutal death metal especially). The one style that I have better luck with is technical death metal, which is as close as I get to a similar relationship as I have with black metal and power metal. But that only means I can listen to a whole album and enjoy it on some level. Finding that one album that really stands out, that's still a rare event.

For 2017, one such album is Infrared Horizon, the second full-length release by US technical death metal act Artificial Brain. These guys, who include in their line-up Revocation guitarist Dan Gargiulo, have previously released their debut album Labyrinth Constellation (2014), the EP Butchering Cosmic Giants (2013) and a 2011 demo, but this album is the first encounter I've had with their music. Funnily enough the album actually very nearly ended up on my figurative death metal discard pile for a reason I'll disclose in the next paragraph, but there was a spark in Artificial Brain's music that's kept me going with it. The kind where the next thing I know I've listened to Infrared Horizon several times and come away with a bit more appreciation for what Artificial Brain have created each time. To the point even where this album will be for the rest of the year the benchmark death metal album to beat.

The music on Infrared Horizon is semi-brutal technical death metal, with that added edge primarily coming in the form of the vocals by frontman Will Smith, which move into the pig squeal territory of brutal death metal every now and then. That's actually the one aspect I could do without regarding the album and is the reason it nearly ended up on my discard pile, but the more positive elements of Artificial Brain's sound have drawn me in to the point that I barely notice the pig squeals (which aren't as ridiculous as they could have been, to be completely fair with the band) any more. The more brutal death metal styled vocals do make some sections of the album a bit monotonous, but fortunately the growls are actually quite diverse on the album, with some being more decipherable and some done with a higher range.

The biggest draw for Infrared Horizon is the level of musicianship on the album. It's absolutely insane but doesn't come across as being too flashy either. I think that may be because the band couple their skills with an unpolished sound production, so they don't sound squeaky clean and clinical the way that some technical death metal can be. Of course there's nothing wrong with taking the polished approach to technical death metal so long as the musical integrity (A.K.A. Songs) is there, but the rawness to this one makes that technical precision come across with an intense savagery that even some of my personal favourite technical death metal albums couldn't hope to match. It's a sound where the playing of production and musicianship really hits the spot, despite some personal gripes with the vocals, which I acknowledged some listeners won't have any qualms about and as such there's a lot of potential for others to get into Infrared Horizon even quicker than I did.

The album does still have the issue that I've had with other death metal albums previously where the songs seem to blur together, though individual identity may become more apparent with further familiarity with the music. That's the real clincher with Infrared Horizon. Unlike other death metal albums of the ilk I've been referring to, it makes me want to continue to listen to it once this review is posted. For now though, the experience it offers as a whole is stunning, though something of a grower and I look forward to giving it more spins.

UMUR "Demo 2011" is as the title suggests a demo independently released in June 2011 by US death metal act Artificial Brain. It´s of some notice that Artificial Brain features guitarist/vocalist Dan Gargiulo in their ranks. Dan Gargiulo is the new boy in the successful death/thrash metal act Revocation.

...judging from the quality of the material on this 3 track, 11:17 minutes long demo, I´m pretty sure Artificial Brain is a little hobby project Dan Gargiulo has on the side. It´s pretty obvious that the music on this demo doesn´t hold many chances of extreme metal mainstream appeal like Revocation do. The music on the demo is death metal with deep and completely unintelligible growling vocals. It´s the kind of demo where I couldn´t believe it was only 11:17 minutes long, because it felt like forever to get through. There are very few catchy moments and it actually wasn´t until the last couple of minutes of "Lightwaves Birthing Ages" that I encountered a riff I found exciting.

It´s too bad the songwriting isn´t more interesting because the guys are pretty skilled musicians and the sound production is strong too considering that this is a demo. I guess a 2.5 star (50%) rating isn´t all wrong.