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Calculations of the Ancients (2014) is the debut full-length album by Canadian act Super Massive Black Holes. Originally started as something of a play anything act the sound that Super Massive Black Holes seem to have settled on is a heavily jazz influenced take of technical/progressive death metal.
Musically Super Massive Black Holes show themselves to be an incredibly well playing act both when it comes to the death metal orientated sections of the music and the slightly less common (but pretty overt) jazzy sections that calm things down every so often. There's definitely something about these two very different kinds of music that just go hand in hand, with albums such as Pestilence's Spheres (1993) and Atheist's Elements (1993) being well known examples. Although a totally DIY effort Calculations of the Ancients also sounds professionally done, allowing all the jazzy/technical/progressive details to stand out to their full potential.
This is where my positivity ends though, because as impressive as the music on Calculations of the Ancients is I have to say that the release is also unfortunately marred by a sub-par vocal performance. At worst the vocalist sounds like he is really straining to get some of the growls out, and he sounds generally weak at the best of times. The music is strong enough to make the vocals tolerable and it's not a long album by any means which helps, but I can't disguise the fact that the vocals are detracting from my enjoyment of the music and creating a rare instance where I wish a release was fully instrumental, which isn't something I usually enjoy. Fortunately there are actually plenty of drawn out instrumental sections despite the overall short running time. The fully instrumental Ghosts of Bhopal is naturally the highlight of the release.
Even with the issue with the vocals Calculations of the Ancients is an impressive debut album from Super Massive Black Holes. Based on the music alone I'd be prepared to give the album as high as 4.5 stars but for the whole experience the band has served up the end result is more in the 3.5 stars bracket. I'm definitely keen to hear more from them as they grow and evolve as a band though, as Calculations of the Ancients is one of the more innovative records I've heard this year so far but they do really need a stronger vocalist to completely carry what they're doing off.
70/100
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/super-massive-black-holes-calculations-of-the-ancients-t3475.html)