Bleed the Future

I don't like technical death metal. I find it boring, alienating, and kinda weird. So I'm a little surprised to find that I am writing about Bleed the Future.

I started listening to it almost as a joke. I had heard that this album was so extreme and technical that it pushed the limits of what death metal could be. When I first gave it a spin, it reminded me of Dethklok, the fictional band from the animated series Metalocalypse. The styling was so over the top, and the lyrics were so silly. The chorus of the opening track is the words "drone corpse aviator." I chuckled, put the album away, and didn't expect to come back to it.

I came back to it. After listening to it a couple dozen more times... I have to admit, it's pretty good. If I were a fan of technical death metal, this might be my favorite album of all time. The riffs are searing and extraordinary. The vocalist's growl is so stylized that I can't take it seriously but it certainly builds the immersive, apocalyptic atmosphere.

There are melodies to appreciate here, even if they are buried beneath the spectacular show. The contrast between quiet and loud moments on "Bleed the Future" is really thought-provoking. The slower tracks had a bit more melody and structure, which is why I liked them a bit more: the chord progression in the second half of "Reverie on the Onyx" feels classical.

I didn't feel a whole lot of emotion while listening to Bleed the Future except perhaps awe that such a perfect exemplar of the technical death metal genre had been created. I thought a lot about the music on a meta-level, but I wasn't able to lose myself in the moment and love the songs for what they were. Still, I think anyone who likes metal should give this album a listen, and if I were another technical metal band I would be terrified of having to live up to this. Bleed the Future is the exemplar of the form.