Style: Progressive death metal, progressive thrash metal, technical death metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Voivod, Sylosis, Vektor, Revocation
Country: Greece
Release date: 24 May 2024
I miss old Sylosis. From 2011’s Monolith to 2015’s Dormant Heart, Josh Middleton and company made some of the most ferocious, head-bangable riffs in existence, and nobody’s been able to touch that four-year run since. But, because life is unfair and nothing great lasts forever, 2020’s Cycles of Suffering showed that all that edge from a few years ago had dulled on their first album released since Middleton’s stint with metalcore legends Architects. More of that -core sound had bled into their thrashy goodness, and an infusion of pop had begun to take hold.
Like all good bands that had a great era that I miss terribly, I pray that one day, another Sylosis worship band will come along and blow my mind like Monolith first did. When the certified blog promo boy and label liaison Christopher slid Blasteroid across my desk like it was a shady drug deal, I knew he had come across either something great or something to hide from Andy. Turns out, it was a little bit of both.
Let me get this out of the way right now, Blasteroid are tiny. They’ve only got about 600 listeners on Spotify, and that makes them one of the smaller bands I’ve ever covered. However, size isn’t everything, and despite their youth and diminutive stature, they’ve already got quite a handle on their signature sound. Old Sylosis influence is here, as well as flashes of Revocation and Vektor on top of some Voivod-ian dissonance, and that’s what make Blasteroid sound so unique.
‘The Final Parsec’ starts us off with a spooky clean line, highlighting some of Manolis Skoularakos’s tasteful bass. What was immediately striking to me when the metal started was how well produced everything is. The guitars sound as ferocious as they should without suffocating a filthy bass tone. That first bit of double bass-accented riffage sounded far more black metal-y than anything Sylosis has ever done, and the immediate transition to dissonant Voivod rhythms is where the album began to hook me.
Technical as they are, and as downright insane as most of these songs appear, they’ve got a prevailing structure that pulls them through the relatively short and lean 40-minute runtime. ‘Chaos God’ starts with riffs that would be right at home on The Outer Ones, but soon turns to a space-y, arpeggiated section and a surprisingly emotive solo that sacrifices none of the shred factor. Right after, of course, they have to hit you with a reprise of that nasty intro riff to close the song out.
Blasteroid know when they’ve got an amazing riff, and they aren’t afraid to repeat something enough times to cram it straight into your cranium before moving on. As riff-ADHD as the songs felt upon first listen, repeated listens revealed more structure than I was prepared for. Take a song like ‘Entwined’ for example. The insane tempo and time-sig changes on this song should feel abrupt, and jarring, but the song blasts through riff after riff that just click together. This band truly shines in its riffs and bottom-end stank, and I hope they take pride in that.
That being said, Jim Makrinakis, for a tech-thrash drummer, shows surprising restraint throughout the record. The clean section of ‘Void Alchemy’ highlights a jazzy side that I wish was a bit more prominent throughout the record, and it’s here that I would’ve loved to hear some cleans from vocalist Alexis Papatheofanous. Despite absolutely loving this constant beatdown of a record, some more dynamics in the form of synths or some classical homages a la Voivod would always be welcome. That being said, the Dave Davidson-esque mid-growls help the aggression stay at an all time high, and he’s the perfect vocalist for a band this insane.
So, have I found my Sylosis replacement? The answer is…not really. Blasteroid are (thankfully) their own thing and have their own talents, despite obvious influences from other bands. I’ve gone back and listened to their EP Universal Knowledge, and it seems they’ve seriously leveled up their songwriting since 2017. Blasteroid have wormed their way into being one of the biggest surprises this year, and I’m quite frankly shocked a band this good is this small. Hopefully that’ll change very soon.
Recommended tracks: Of Nature Unknown, Entwined, Void Alchemy, Mass Synthesis
You may also like: Carnosus, Anarchÿ, Quasarborn
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Blasteroid is:
– Spuros Pavlis (guitar)
– Alexis Papatheofanous (vocals)
– Manolis Skoularakos (bass)
– Chris Koutalelis (guitar)
– Jim Makrinakis (drums)
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