Review Summary: A success genre-wise, but is still "TDM-core" at the end of the day.
In the vein of many of the other progressive tech-death bands (like Veil of Maya and The Faceless), The Binary Code focus on heavy blastbeats and intricate guitar-work; however, this time the band aims a little left of center and at a semblance of substance to the work. Interwoven into the mostly technical heart of Suspension of Disbelief are small lapses of progressive genius and these are where the skill of this band shines through.
The album starts off with a two-part title track. The immediate onslaught of the guitar is the first thing that catches your attention. An infectious riff provides a great companion to Michael's fierce yet still understandable vocals (a rare for the genre).
Following the technical display comes the second half of the title track; this is where you get your first taste of the band’s more progressive side. In between the ambient beginning and end of the song is some nice and meaty instrumental work with clean climbing and falling riffs accompanied by a fairly good baseline and some adequate blast beats.
“Mechanical Seas”, which was originally on their 2008 Demo, was re-recorded and carried on to their full-length for good reason; it is easily one of the best songs on the album. Found within are the usual tech-death riffs but this time with melodic intervals and some good gang vocals near the end.
“Ghost Planet” is one of the more unique songs on album; the sharp squeals of the guitar in the first half of the song help in setting it apart from the rest of the riff-raff. As the song proceeds along it starts to settle down into back and forth riffs and some dissonant vocals from someone other than Michael (the main vocalist) near the end.
“Void I” is really just a short progressive interlude and acts as a sort of a halfway mark for the album. The music as a whole on this track is a bit experimental and reminds me a lot of some of the shorter instrumental tracks on BtBaM’s "Alaska" but ends sort of abruptly leaving something to be desired.
“The Story” is filled with abrupt ends to riffs as well as pronounced dual guitars and some interesting dissonant verses here and there that push it to be the singular stand-alone tracks ripe for single-ing.
“Human Condition” is somewhat disappointing, starting off with a repetitive riff that drags on for a minute or so. The whole song is a rife with repetitive riffs and questionable song structure that may draw some like fire but leave others bored out of their mind.
“Awaiting Necropolis” has some riffs that could use some work and fairly lazy songwriting as well as some sub-par drumming.
“Void II” provides the listener with a nice closer; a soft progressive pillow for metal head to rest his head on after the headbanging onslaught of the core tracks.
The Album as a whole is great for fans of the genre, but will probably leave more diverse listeners with a bad taste in their mouth. Either way, it’s worth the cursory listen if you don’t already have a long list building up already like I do.
