This album sticks out as one of the most underrated and overlooked metal albums in years. Maybe the underground fans out there will continue finding this brutal tech-death gem coming straight outta Switzerland.

Buy & download: Orogeny by Anachronism on Bandcamp

Anachronism follows a pretty strict rule of “no melody allowed” — almost ever, that is.

This frees up the music to explore new territories beyond the overwhelming repetition in the melodic metal world…

“We get it, you liked Iron Maiden and/or At The Gates.” This is not the case with Anachronism, and the snobbiest of metalheads, such as myself, will tell you that an album like “Orogeny” is a huge sigh of relief. This music is meditational in a way, if you listen to it right. I feel that way about even some of Despised Icon’s music, where the blasting and machine-like precision of it all pummels you into a new state of mind no matter what. (I don’t like much “deathcore” but I sure do love Despised Icon). Anyway…

Anachronism uses this “melodic minor/major cliches be damned” attitude as an inspirational opportunity to emphasize rhythm and texture in the music, over any sort of “singalong” quality. The little ambient track at the end is perfectly calm and creepy to send things home. My only complaint is that they have a track with extended speaking. I don’t like hearing a lot of spoken words in my music, though Pink Floyd sometimes pulled it off. The poetry or monologue is the only disruption for me on the journey the band has presented here. This makes it a 9/10 on the Tech-Death Scale.

The timing changes and continuous return to blast beats really make my day better. This is top-shelf technical death metal worthy of the highest praises.

The longer it takes for everyone else to discover this album, the more I like it. This is one of the best tech-death releases in recent years, in my opinion, and I really hope the band continues doing what they’re doing here.

If you like “Orogeny”, you might also like: Ulcerate, Disentomb, Noctambulist, Gorguts, Beyond Creation, Cryptopsy, Wormed, Decrepit Birth, Cytotoxin, Scarve, WRVTH, Continuum, Serocs

Specific description: Dissonant, groovy, blasting tech-death. Progressive and experimental death metal.