» Blog Archive Mordant Rapture: A Chaotic Blending Of Insanity -
Evan Conway Hard Music, News, Reviews

We’ve come to the point with tech death where it’s diversify or succumb to irrelevancy. When Beyond Creation released Earthborn Evolution back in 2014, it was a big deal seeing a band with 8 string guitars utilizing melodic and digestible passages, married to the unique sound of a fretless bass that was just as complicated as their guitar parts. At the time everyone was trying to ape Meshuggah, and now flashforward and the technical wankery that comes with being a tech-oriented band is practically a joke. Yet bands still manage to diversify, to find unique sound avenues, and come out on top. Mordant Rapture are starting on that path with their debut EP, they’re trying to let everyone out of the gate know what’s going on with them.

The Abnegation is about as welcoming as one can get with a first EP. Five tracks, one being an instrumental, and a sizable amount of content to garner interest sets the band up quickly. The presentation is nice: legible, classy font, presenting the EP’s title almost like it’s a book cover. And just like you’d expect from a band of their nature, things quickly descend into chaos, as the band winds you through 22-minutes of shreddy, amalgamous extremities. Mordant Rapture have ambitions, and with chops like these, they’ve got a better chance than most.

It’s the Cradle of Filth-esque intro that really throws you for a loop, because once the Fleshgod Apocalypse-style blast beats come in, you know what the band are trying to emulate. The symphonic elements of both bands in question are immediately prevalent in their sound. Think if Inferi (Blackened tech death band from PA) really emphasized the orchestrations in their songs. “Withered” has plenty of anthemic moments where the string sections are able to come through the mix, and it truly elevates the songs as intentionally.

The orchestrations and general chaos of the EP fall into a fault in the production, however. It’s sparkling clean and well done, make no mistake, but literally everything is firing on all cylinders. At times, it becomes very difficult to know where to focus in a song, simply because there’s so much going on. It may take multiple listens to digest everything properly, and some instances of musical changes are so quick, like a fleeting piano part or a change in the orchestration, that it’s a blink-and-you-miss-it situation.

Even still, the production does give way to some amazing moment on the album. Every song has a lead guitar part that truly stands out, especially the harmonized solo in “Quell the Voiceless,” and it only builds and builds throughout the EP. By the time you’re hitting the end of “Natal Trophies,” the band just isn’t holding back anymore. The Abnegation doesn’t Mordant Rapture take any breaks, but rather are giving you a moment to breathe as they split the EP down the middle with an instrumental to ease the beating.

Mordant Rapture take cues from the biggest in extreme symphonic acts, all the while having nods to Emperor and Spawn of Possession throughout to create a rock solid debut EP. Though the production is hit or miss, the band are putting themselves out there in the best of ways to a community that will no doubt embrace them fully.

The Abnegation is available now on The Artistian Era, which can be streamed here. You can listen to “Quell the Voiceless” below.

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