In 2021, Archspire introduced their new album Bleed the Future, composed with the most complex note combinations that our brain’s auditory cortex can perceive, under the label Season of Mist

 The Canadian technical death metal band’s fourth studio album, was granted Canada’s local music awards Juno in 2022, and thus, Bleed the Future’s success was recognised not only by metalheads, but also by Canadian professionals of the music industry.

 Such a tremendous impact by the album, only 31 minutes long, is amazing. Archspire, called “one of death metal’s most forward-thinking bands” by MetalTalk, put forth their innovative outlook by employing their self-discovered recording technique “shotgun vocals” and by using rap vocals

 Bleed the Future, that is a concept album, inspired from vocalist Oli Rae Aleron’s dream about humans that could foresee the future by looking at the liquid gold in the mouths of reptilian aliens, and with time, this dream transforms into the metaphor of the danger of childbirth. The cover art, which appears to be inspired by Aleron’s dream, bears metal album covers’ master artist Eliran Kantor’s signature.

 The first song on Bleed The Future. “Drone Corpse Aviator” is the album’s most known song, by not even the most technically complicated or fastest. The song, which begins with Tobi Morelli’s own invention “gravity picking technique, has a solo so beautiful that you may not be ever able to convince someone on the fact that the melody has been composed by a death metal band. To watch the song that has even gained the appreciation of non-death metal fans, played live by drummer Spencer Prewett makes one see the highest level that could be attained physically by a percussionist. This song that introduced Archspire to the world is, in my opinion, Bleed the Future’s best song

 The second track, “Golden Mouth of Ruin,” is one of the album’s most technically demanding songs, I’m sure that even working on just one part of it would greatly benefit any guitarist and elevate them to the next level. Dean Lamb’s sweep picking contribution to this track is the album’s most majestic sweep picking solo.

 The third track, “Abandon the Linear,” is the album’s first track that begins with a slow, deep tempo which may test your patience upon first listen. However, the chorus riff is so powerful that it carries the entire song on it’s shoulders; this tapping riff is also a riff that I enjoy playing on guitar myself. This song can be listen just to hear the tapping riff.

 The fourth song is the title track, “Bleed the Future,” Aleron’s rap influences are clear, and his diction that he developed to phrase the words so rapidly also should not be overlooked. The interlude, which bassist Jared Smith can carry only by himself, has already become a classic that audiences sing along to at concerts. I highly recommend watching the music video for “Bleed the Future,” for which Archspire launched a fundraising campaign to film it.

 “Drain of Incarnation,” is the fifth of the list, begins gently with a clean intro before quickly picking up speed. Don’t skip it before the end, the true gem of the song reveals itself in the outro riff.

 In the sixth track, “Acrid Canon,” besides Morelli’s gravity picking ornamentations, a section where Morelli and Lamb play together on the same one guitar reaches to our ears. You can view how it’s performed in the album’s making documentary “Bring Back the Danger,” but don’t get too excited; guitarists currently play this part at their live shows on their guitars seperately.

 The seventh track “Reverie On the Onyx” have a brief mystical intro, you realise that, the uneven staccato riffs have made their impact on you when you get surprised over your fingers thumping out the riff on a hard surface. After that, the chorus riffs starts, it is flowing fluently that the only thing you can do is to wait for the chorus to repeat to hear it again.

 The eighth, final, and fastest track on the album “A.U.M” (Apeiron Universal Migration), which starts with a voice recording of Prewett’s elitist metalhead friend, is the song from the album that reflects Archspire’s sense of humour. The voice recording is deliberately chosen as intro of the last track, if you haven’t already paused the song, you will now hear “A.U.M”s ascending riff, every note of it carrying you to death metal’s highest metaphysical level that can only be reached at 400 bpm, it is unfathomable that a song this fast can have melodies so beautiful that they could be sung as a chant. The interlude has got the album’s most graceful melody and instantly takes hold of you when you hear it.

 Known as the fastest band in the world, to show this to the world, Archspire performs an equal amount of skill to this speed. From cooking shows to hilarious tour promotions, they also push their limits on marketing. I can only speculate about what they will achieve next, I whish Archspire to continue their success and hope to meet them in the future.

 Stay Tech.

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