Entheos - The Infinite Nothing (2016)

Entheos is a technical death metal act made up of former members of The Faceless and Animals As Leaders. You can sort of imagine what this leads to, as the record not only contains the sort of progressive/technical influx that we'd expect from such an act, but it also seems to embrace electronic atmospheres, some of which are used in the background of certain tracks, while others become standalone pieces entirely. Those expecting a severe technical performance are certainly getting one here, complete with all the trimmings from thrash, death and even core semblances; even though I still feel the whole thing sounds like an indiscernible jumble of various ideas and extremities that sometimes work and other times simply do not. Guitar solos just seem to creep up sporadically, just as much as the electronic bits I've mentioned and there doesn't really seem to be a flow to this substance.
The Infinite Nothing can sound very ADD at times and seems like it's missing a real sense of riff-matter. I'm certainly not going to turn it away because of that, as the guys do come off rather fast and furious and what they deliver certainly comes off pretty interesting, much more than similar acts, especially in the deathcore realm of things.

If there's anything that I can really say came out to me here, it was indeed the electronic pieces and the tiny prog parts that gave the music a chance to breathe. You and I both know that there are several acts playing this kind of tech-death who've completely forgotten to give their songs air, and their records have caused me to suffocate quite a bit in the process. Yet here, I'm not getting that. While The Infinite Nothing is still a bit thick, slightly raw and mightily heavy; it does carry with it a sense of purpose and I feel that's what makes all of it's chaotic sporadity stick out. Even though you have to really dive in a bit before you start hearing some real riff-melodies (An Ever-Expanding Human) it's still worth checking out for those looking to stay in the more commercial realms of this genre. I hope that with the next album they'll branch out a little more. This is fine for now, but I want to hear something grander, possibly not so sporadic and not quite so one-dimensional in the vein of tech-death in the future. I feel that many of the same riffs and riff-structures are being used, with the band defaulting to breakdowns or little prog-parts when they're tired the speedy stuff that makes up most of this listen. Ultimately, the record is relatively solid and still worth checking out, but I'm afraid that I'm just going to have to hear a little bit more from them before I can really say I'm a believer.

(8 Tracks, 40:00)

7/10