Style: Progressive Death/Technical Death Metal (Harsh vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: US (KY)
Release date: February 26, 2021
Some things are classic. Death metal bands opening albums from nothing straight into the madness is one of those things. It’s good to see the classics live on like how Klexos begins their new record by, well, immediately dropping into the riffs, leaving you needing to scramble to remember that you did actually hit play. Aside from this, I’ve been thinking about how since starting writing here I have tended to be the progressive death/tech death go-to, and as such it can at times become a bit samey or hard to distinguish some bands. As such, it has become clear to me that needing a distinguishing characteristic or quirk is key in these genres to standing out. At the very least, something needs to be brought to the table other than “we are good at riff and tech deathing” to push beyond feeling like a same-fest again.
So how much have Klexos distinguished themselves? Kind of.
As I probably have repeated to death at this point, the techy side of death is pretty crowded and played by now, so I tend to hope some of these bands play more to the progressive side of things than just straight teching out. In this respect Klexos has hit the mark. While the typical technical mainstays are here in bursts (blasting drums, climbing riffs and sudden bursts of tremolos or blazing riffs), there is a lot of leaning more into a dissonant, angular style…not quite like an Ulcerate but not entirely unlike it. The songwriting here is incredibly dense, but not in the completely non-understandable way. There’s just a lot going on in every song along with a generally cavernous sound which lends itself to dense mixing.
Compositionally I would say the album is pretty steady, though it definitely throws enough variety of deliveries in to keep the listener engaged. Most songs focus on the pummeling angular attack with few exceptions. The album has no real resting point for the listener until maybe a bit past halfway with the track “Sapēre Obscured”, which does explore a bit a more nuanced, atmospheric sound. It’s a welcome breather in an otherwise pretty pummeling album. The dynamics on this record come much more from speed and density of notes than real changes in mood, tone, or volume. The true success is the balance of technicality with room to actually listen, which helps lessen the feeling of being destroyed many techy albums leave the listener with. It bodes well for these guys that I don’t feel real listener fatigue a few songs in, and it honestly is a pretty easy listen all the way through (a marvel for this kind of stuff if I’m being honest!)
Overall this is a pretty cool progressive death/techy death album and a great first release. This one definitely stands out amongst the wave of dissonance-using techy bands. Kudos to the band for a well written and performed piece, I’ll be listening to this one more often.
Recommended tracks: Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Adiaphora, Apocryphal Parabolam
Recommended for fans of: Ulcerate, Artificial Brian, Gorguts
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Klexos is:
– Brandon Brown (Guitar/Bass/Vocals/Lyrics/Composition)
– Evan Neiman (Drums)
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