I was not overly impressed with the 2012 debut Symbiosis, debut from this Florida tech death/deathcore act. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, it was just yet another faceless (no pun intended) modern tech death/deathcore record with little soul and all twiddle and breakdowns. The kind of stuff that Ive heard too many times before from the likes of Job For  A Cowboy (last year’s excellent Sun Eater not withstanding), Veil of Maya, Rivers of Nihil, Thy Art is Murder, Born of Osiris, Within the Ruins etc;  technically competent but forgetful.

Well since 2012 the band appears to have had some line up turnover in the drum and vocal department (though you’d be hard pressed to tell with the same high low dual vocals), and that’s reflected in a slightly more mature and challenging delivery of a typically predictable sterile sound. As with many of their peers the shift away from deathcore and breakdowns has occurred, and here the band have developed a more technical, but controlled, stuttering, Djent sound that has a bit of a resemblance to the likes of Soreption as well as a more classic, solo filled, twangy fretless bass, tech death sound akin to label mates Job For a Cowboy.

Casuistry (defined as the resolving of moral problems by the application of theoretical rules to particular instances ) isn’t as impressive as either of the above mentioned band’s 2014 efforts, but certainly an improvement that elevates tea band a little above the crowd in the pure deathcore genre and moves them more into the more intellectual  Aegaeon/Lifeforms ballpark. One need only listen to the standout tracks like the impressive, throttling opening trio of “Believe the Unseen”, “Reanimated Destruction”  and “Cast into the Depths” as well as  “Nightmares of your Conception” or “Falling Into Obscurity” to hear the band’s development and growth.

Admittedly, the album gets a bit samey in its latter stuttering, screechy/growly stages, but there’s something here that’s getting ready to possibly be special in the future. I don’t know if its some clean vocals or keyboards that will put these guys over the edge they are already teetering on into the more progressive realms inhabited by the likes of The Contortionist, The Haarp Machine and others, but  I sense something coming. And I’m looking forward to it.

[Visit the band's website]

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