France has to be one of my favorite European countries for Technical Death Metal.  I feel like every year there is at least a half dozen bands from there releasing unbelievably catchy records. 2019 is no exception with Ad Patres Sophomore release A Brief Introduction to Human Experiments.  These French sickos play a bit of a cross over style of technical brutal death metal In that at times they have thrashier elements to the riffage and vox that are more about midrange than bellowing gurgles and shrieks. Think of bands like Volturyon from Sweden or I Chaos from The Netherlands.  From the production to the musicianship to the song writing everything is really a strong step up from their 2012 debut Scorn Aesthetics.

On to the music, the opening track “Mechanical Enlightenment” wastes absolutely zero time in destroying everything in its proverbial path.  The harmonious guitar work of Oliver Bousquet and Py Mariani would make Doug Cerrito and Terrance Hobbs of Suffocation blush. My only gripe regarding the use of harmony regarding this album is that they seem to do them in one key.  This is a relatively small gripe as they do an excellent job of keeping it fresh within the song arrangements.  Drummer Alsvid’s blast work through this is stellar.  Crazy that he is also the drum in the experimental French metal group Seth.   The multifaceted vocal work of Axel Doussaud really is impressive. I am a sucker for vocalists that annunciate. Doussaud’s voice reminds me a bit of Dennis Rondum (Ex Visceral Bleeding, Spawn of Possession). There is a pretty well done instrumental sample part towards the middle of the album called “Sermon” which borrows from one of my favorite Stanley Kubrick films a Clockwork Orange.  “Sermon” transitions quite well into “Verses Void”.

“Led by Flesh” and “Symbiosick” are my two favorite tracks on the record.  Ad Patres really do a great job of keeping the writing formula as simplistic as possible with tracks for the most part clocking in at in between three to four minutes.  Unique Leader and Willowtip are going to continue to have numerous awesome death metal releases this year which is fine and consistent to those bigger labels.  This is one of those releases this year that could very easily get missed and if you are a fan of this type of death metal you would do wise to order this right away as this album can help burn off calories while head banging. I am pretty sure I have burnt off at least a few pounds raging to this in my car. The closing track “The Floating Point” is the longest and probably slowest song on the album. Ad Patres really do a fantastic job of keeping their sound groovy and catchy while also busting out some really solid musicianship.  There is not much to like about this and will be in my mix for best Death Metal Albums of 2019.

[Visit the band's website]

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