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Gigan - Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery And Super Science review



Reviewer:
9.2

16 users:
7.44
Band: Gigan
Album: Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery And Super Science
Release date: October 2013


01. Beneath The Sea Of Tranquility
02. Influence Through Ritualistic Projection
03. Electro-Stimulated Hallucinatory Response
04. Mother Of Toads
05. Obsidian Sun
06. Cosmic Triangular Communications
07. Gibbering Hordes Of Zemiath
08. Bio-Engineered Molecular Abnormalities

When I was growing up, death metal was happening all over the place. You had the continuing explosion of brutal death metal, the heyday of melodic death metal, and the furtherment of technical death metal. With such exponential growth, the bubble was always bound to burst. And it did. Oh how it did. Since then, most of the subgenres have become caricatures of their former selves. There is the occasional surprise here and there, but for the most part, these wells have gone dry.

And yet from the ashes, a new breed of technical death metal seems to be rising. Between groups like Ulcerate, Malthusian, and Portal, there seems to be a veritable geyser of untapped potential that is far from stagnant. Enter Gigan, a tech death band far removed from the endless waves of Dying Fetus clones. With a penchant for the progressive, and occasionally psychedelic, the latest album, Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery And Super Science, is as impressive as it is wordy.

The most basic thing about this album is probably the vocals. They are your typical death metal grunts and growls with the occasional retch for good measure. But Gigan's "basic" is your average group's 110%. Eston Browne will throttle the shit out of you. Each verbal assault is measured and calculated to be as crushing as possible. But let's move on to the true stars here: Nate Cotton and Eric Hersemann. These cacophonous riffs and insatiable rhythms will have your head spinning like Lind Blair. Time signature leap from measure to measure while the guitar throbs, pulsates, and punctures.

And yet, for all of its chaos, Multi-Dimensional Fractal-Sorcery And Super Science is far from an unfettered freak show. This is "technical" death after all. Each wailing chord, each sweeping of the fretboard, each jarring tempo change is coldly calculated. There is a level of order that rivals the aforementioned Ulcerate, but within a completely different aesthetic. Foregoing a bleak, sandblasted blackness, Gigan occupies a massive obelisk in the cosmos. There are surprising amounts of hooks and memorable moments carrying each song through time and space.

Final word: this is some of the best death metal you will hear from the past few years. It's alarmingly technical, but not in the done-to-death (har har) traditional sense. There is a sense of the psychedelic, as well as a masterful churning of dissonance into melody and order. This is a supernova contained within a tesseract.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 10
Production: 9

Written by flightoficarus | 28.06.2015




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 29 users
03.08.2015 - 05:12
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Very good review and album. Progressive without being cliched, and a pretty unique atmosphere that's hard to come by elsewhere. Definitely one of the more mature and challenging death metal bands on the block. I'm actually pretty good friends with Randy Piro, who really defined the band and their sound early on, and whose songwriting influence can still be felt heavily on this album, even in his absence. It's unfortunate that he isn't with Gigan anymore, but thankfully his experimenting with odd, sci fi themed death metal has been continuing on with Orbweaver... who I should really get to adding on here!
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I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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03.08.2015 - 21:47
Rating: 10
flightoficarus
Stamp Tramp
Written by Auntie Sahar on 03.08.2015 at 05:12

Very good review and album. Progressive without being cliched, and a pretty unique atmosphere that's hard to come by elsewhere. Definitely one of the more mature and challenging death metal bands on the block. I'm actually pretty good friends with Randy Piro, who really defined the band and their sound early on, and whose songwriting influence can still be felt heavily on this album, even in his absence. It's unfortunate that he isn't with Gigan anymore, but thankfully his experimenting with odd, sci fi themed death metal has been continuing on with Orbweaver... who I should really get to adding on here!


Gonna have to check them out.
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04.08.2015 - 13:20
Rating: 7
mz

I have seen you throwing the malthusian reference on many dm bands, in a unjustified manner. Despite the fact that I love their demo, they dont hold much of importance , at least when it comes to crazy , avantgarde death metal. Why not going for bands like gorguts and pyrrhon. I even don't see much of relevance in portal comparision tbh.
Btw,their previous record was better IMO.
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Giving my ears a rest from music.
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04.08.2015 - 20:32
Rating: 10
flightoficarus
Stamp Tramp
Written by mz on 04.08.2015 at 13:20

I have seen you throwing the malthusian reference on many dm bands, in a unjustified manner. Despite the fact that I love their demo, they dont hold much of importance , at least when it comes to crazy , avantgarde death metal. Why not going for bands like gorguts and pyrrhon. I even don't see much of relevance in portal comparision tbh.
Btw,their previous record was better IMO.


I reference it here, and with those other bands, as a point to differentiate from the traditional death metal sound. I don't really think any of the bands I named sound alike, they just share a penchant for going left when everyone else goes right. As for which album is better, I like them both.
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Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches.
Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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