Band's List Technical Death Nebulous (USA) The Quantum Transcendence of Death

In the midst of a realm filled with modern technical, sinisterly-toned, and mathematical modern death metal, a band hailing from Birmingham, Alabama, emerges from the cosmos, known as Nebulous. On the same year after forming in 2010, they released “Prophecy Demo.” Afterwards, in 2011, they then released their debut EP entitled “Into Infinite Spectrums,” which turned a few more heads. Tragically, just weeks before the release of this album, drummer Justin Beasley passed on, resulting in the band moving on as a duo, with vocalist Alex Pitts and guitarist Matt Rogers. Nebulous later joined the roster of Blast Head Records, and proceeded to unleash their first full-length record “The Quantum Transcendence of Death” in 2013. After displaying potential in their previous efforts, the duo calls forth a nine-track demon to ravage the scene.

The musicianship is nicely played out in this record. The deathly growls and the high-pitched vocals of Alex Pitts are, while nothing truly notable, are well done. The instrumentals, on the other hand, however, are showcased in this record somewhat better. The guitars boast a potent range of technical and mathematical riffs and heavy chugs, and the drums also brandish both slower and faster tempos, balancing both sides out without sounding choppy or forced. Both of these aspects build up on the technical death framework that this album has to offer, and they are done greatly. The production is also worthy of high esteem, making the music sound full-bodied and clear, so everything is audible and bold, boosting the musicianship to ever greater heights. Overall, the musicianship, particularly the instrumentation, is certainly praiseworthy.

The primary focus of the sound that “The Quantum Transcendence of Death” has to offer to its listeners is the fusion of the rapid-fire styles of technical death metal and the heavy chugs of deathcore. As a result of this mix, loyal fans of both sides of the modern death metal coin will certainly take pleasure in giving this record a spin. The music itself is quite well-structured, with the music demonstrating a nice flow throughout the majority of the record, avoiding the shortcoming of elements sounding cluttered and abrupt. As conducted by the drum-play, the speed of the album’s vicious technical death metal onslaught balances firmly on the line between faster and slower paces, giving the music’s tempo a healthy equilibrium. The band’s complex attack on the listeners’ eardrums crafts a vortex of technical destruction and heaviness while maintaining a great sense of both balance and transition.

Despite this, unfortunately, there are two major issues that the album suffers from. First of all, while, as stated earlier, the hybrid between technical metal and deathcore is played out without any real distraction, there is absolutely nothing truly unique that would help it stand out of the crowd. It is generally your average technical deathcore record that will definitely appeal to technical death fans, but not to anyone else. Secondly, while balance in velocity is largely present in this record, a balance between brutality and subtlety does not. In other words, all of the tracks in this album all sound far too similar for their own good, consisting purely of sinister technical metal. As a result, the formula downgrades as the album goes, causing it to grow bland. As well as this album has good points, these are the two glaring problems that sadly do not help in making it hold up too well.

“The Quantum Transcendence of Death” is, for the most part, a very solid piece of death metal. The musicianship is great, the sound production is crisp and powerful, and the technical death onslaught is solid and well-built. Not much has changed from the band’s past releases, so old fans definitely will find nothing disappointing about it. As stated earlier, however, it does have those two issues that prevent this record from being anything out of the ordinary. While it is certainly not a bad record, there is nothing new it has to offer, either. It’s simply your run-of-the-mill technical deathcore album that will appeal mostly to followers of the said genre. Newcomers may actually find a favorable place to start their first steps into the genre here, with its brutality being very appealing of this genre’s heavier field. Although it does have problems, it is safe to say that Nebulous has cooked up a decent release.