Review Summary: Modern tech death done right 101!
My personal taste in metal has changed drastically throughout my nearly 2 decades of listening to the genre. Then again, I feel like that's the case with lots of metalheads. When I was getting into extreme metal, I couldn't get enough melody with it. Stuff like later Cradle of Filth (still my favorite), Dimmu Borgir, etc. The clean production with the synths was a perfect recipe for me. Nowadays its more of the opposite. I LOVE lofi and dirty sounding stuff and the cleaner albums tend to leave me bored after a short amount of time. But every now and then I can still get down with the less filthy and melodic side of things. That's where Stortregn's
Impermanence comes into play.
Recommended to me by our own Zac124, I didn't know exactly what to expect. Based on descriptions, I thought this would be standard, somewhat technical, melodic death metal. My assessment was half right.
Impermanence is definitely rooted in melodic death metal, but that's not the whole story. This album hits you right in the cock with riff after riff, and while extremely technical, it doesn't fall into the same trap as a lot of modern tech death bands. You know, the one where they do nothing but try to play fast and think that equates to making good tech death. These riffs are insanely melodic while still maintaining absolute brutality. The riffage on this album can compete with the best of death metal bands and every single solo here is percectly placed and executed to perfection. We also have some cleaner breaks for acoustics at several points and it provides nice break from the assault that your eardrums are enduring. The drumming is very tight and on point here, which can also be another problem for tech death bands, but not for Stortregn. The lack of slopiness overall is a clear advantage for these satanic Swiss warriors.
Lets move on to the clear highlight of the album...the vocal performance. The range of vocalist Romain Negro is, for lack of a better word, stunning. His seamless transition from some of the lowest pitched death growls you'll ever hear to absolutely maniacal higher pitched shrieking is some of the best that you will hear in metal today. To be honest, Dani Filth comes to mind with his extreme versatility with his vocals. The drastic switch of styles is throughout the album is one to be commended and applauded by metal fans everywhere and cannot be easy on the vocal chords.
Impermanence isn't trying to go too far outside the box. If you're someone that doesn't like tech death or melodeath, I doubt this album will do all that much to change your mind. However, if you have any liking towards anything resembling either genre, you need to give
Impermanence some of your time. The vocals are damn near enough themselves to want to jam this and the schizophrenic riffage is just icing on the cake. Modern tech death can be fantastic when done correctly and Stortregn are checking all the right boxes.
