SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF

Just got back from Christmas dinner shopping while listening to this album on my iPod. The combination of happily shopping people at the mall with this slab of rigid murderous violence in my ears was beyond surrealistic. I'm still in a cheerful mood from the experience!

The Binary Code are a gang of extrovert youngsters from New Jersey that rejuvenated the metal-core of Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power with an additional dose of energy and an impressive range of progressive tech-metal riffs. To a certain extent they might be lumped in with current-day bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan or Between the Buried and Me, but I'm impressed by their self-assured and personal taken on extreme metal. The riffs, the reckless time-signatures, the dissonant chord progressions and the capricious song developments all sound fresh and crisp, and integrate perfectly with the more reflective spaced-out post-rock moments that balance out the aggression. It's done with much skill and confidence and it accentuates their anger perfectly.

Apart from a couple of bars near the end of the record, all vocals are consistently extreme, low death roars, hardcore shouting, black shrieks and even some parts that remind me of Chuck Shuldiner. The choice to have extreme vocals only is the right choice here, the band already varies the metal onslaught with quieter parts, clean vocals would have compromised the energizing statement they wanted to make.

With a running time of under 37 minutes they deliver a solid and concentrated blow, one you will want to hear again immediately after finishing it. In an age of 60+ minute records, it's good to see some bands still know how to differentiate between quality and quantity. An album that created quite a buzz in 2009 and one you shouldn't miss out on.