ATROPHIA RED SUN

On "Twisted Logic" the band play a technical/progressive death metal style featuring futuristic sounding synth effects that provide the music with a sci-fi atmosphere. The band are very well playing and deliver their performances with conviction. Lead vocalist Covan would later join fellow Polish death metal act Decapitated for the recording of their 4th full- length studio album "Organic Hallucinosis (2006)", but if you´re familiar with his vocal performance on that album, you might be surprised by how he sounds here, as he predominanly sings in a much higher pitched extreme vocal style, compared to his gruff deep growls on "Organic Hallucinosis (2006)". He also growls deeper on "Twisted Logic" though. There are also quite a few spoken parts and a few clean sung parts too. The latter are more odd than pretty though.

"Twisted Logic" is relatively well produced (the clicky bass drums, could have prospered from a more organic sound though) and as a result of the omnipresent spacey synths, it´s quite an atmospheric death metal album. It´s also relatively original and I can´t mention any specific references (and then again I do hear a couple of references to Swedish technical death metal act Theory in Practice), although Atrophia Red Sun are not completely unique sounding. The material are for the most part pretty intriguing, but not always instantly catchy. Maybe because some tracks are relatively complex and don´t necessarily feature instantly recognisable hooks. Sometimes they just seem to be composed of a lot of intriguing ideas, but not really with an overall structure in mind...

...and that´s probably the most grave issue with "Twisted Logic" and why I´m so biased about it. It features a ton of intriguing and adventurous ideas, but the album ultimately isn´t that memorable because of the way the ideas are put together. From a purely technical point of view/from a musician point of view "Twisted Logic" is still a very interesting album though and I guess a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn´t all wrong.

The music on the album is melodic death metal. The band feature six members including a keyboard player (who also handles samples) and therefore the music is rather keyboard heavy and at times very atmospheric. Lead guitar themes also play a big role in the music and I actually think there are quite a few influences from an act like Amorphis in the music albeit without the ethnic/folk influence. To my ears "Fears" features a more futuristic sounding atmosphere. I hear quite a few goth/doom/death influences in the music too and acts like Cemetary and Tiamat come to mind there. The vocals alternate between intelligible growling and other less raw vocal styles.

The band are well playing and the sound production is decent. It could definitely have been stronger and more powerful, but it´s only occasionally a distraction. It´s definitely the weakest link here though. If the sound production was of better quality I would probably have given a 3.5 star (70%) rating, but as it is now a 3 star (60%) rating will do.