ARCHSPIRE
‘Too Fast To Die’
Self-Released

The problem with extreme technical death metal usually isn’t so much just how ridiculously over the top the music is, it’s how ridiculously over-seriously the bands and musicians take themselves. And what you often end up with is an impressively/impeccably played but ultimately joyless mishmash of brutality, wankery and over-indulgence.

Canada’s ARCHSPIRE may be guilty on the first count, but no one can accuse the quintet of taking itself too seriously – or seriously at all, for that matter. Indeed, if anything, the self-described “fastest band on Earth” has fully embraced its Looney Tunes over-the-toppedness and – a la power metal contemporaries DRAGONFORCE – has as much fun with it as it can.
ARCHSPIRE’s aptly titled fifth full-length ‘Too Fast To Die’ was preceded by a series of sometimes wacky videos – notably for “Carrion Ladder” and “The Vessel” – that showcase not only the band’s formidable chops, but its self-deprecating, and often grotesque, sense of humor. Usually, it’s motormouth frontman Oliver Rae Aleron– with his mile-a-minute, “Corpsegrinder” meets Busta Rhymes/Tech N9ne cadence – who plays the foil and is the butt of the jokes.

But ‘Too Fast To Die’ is certainly no laughing matter. The self-released, crowd-sourced effort finds ARCHSPIRE once again both raising the bar for extreme tech death and delivering something that is not only palatable, but eminently enjoyable. These guys know a thing or two about songcraft and how to bring that together with the velocity, dexterity and ferocity that is central to the band’s sound. More on that in a minute.

First off, as advertised, ‘Too Fast To Die’ is pretty fucking fast – and in some cases really fucking fast. New drummer Spencer Moore, ex of INFERI (which, oddly enough, is releasing a new album this week too that he apparently played on!), who took over from ARCHSPIRE’s original drummer Spencer Prewett to great fanfare just over a year ago, is more than up to the task. His rat-a-tat, rivet gun snare, bass drum gallop, furious blasts and agile fills ably steer the band as it hurtles along, always seemingly at the edge of veering out of control but somehow managing to stay on the rails.

Things get off to a brisk enough start with “Liminal Cypher,” which also mixes in a grindy breakdown countered by sweeping, almost delicate lead flourishes. But that proves to only be a lap under caution, as ARCHSPIRE really hits the gas with the blast-fueled “Red Goliath” and then goes absolutely apeshit with the careening “Carrion Ladder,” which opens with Aleron’s seemingly meth-addled ramble that stretches the speed limits of the human voice. It’s unintelligible, but the mere fact he doesn’t choke on his own tongue is remarkable.

The title track closes the album in an absolute blur, flavored by epileptic, widdly-widdly guitar licks that echo WYLD STALLYNS from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” or the scales DETHKLOK’s Skwisgaar Skwigelf always seems to be practicing. Betwixt and between, ARCHSPIRE portion out the velocity a bit less liberally, yet still treat ‘Too Fast To Die’ as both a sprint and a marathon, relatively speaking.

The band’s last couple albums, 2017’s ‘Relentless Mutation’ and 2022’s ‘Bleed The Future,’ barely cracked the half-hour mark. ‘Too Fast,’ by contrast, is a full-bodied 40 minutes, as ARCHSPIRE stretches out the arrangements just a little on its eight tracks to give things more depth and breathing room yet without adding unnecessary proggy sprawl.

Instead, the band offers moments of classically inspired calm and elegance contrasted by bruising chugs and djent-like hooks and power chords, and fits of dizzying technicality married with a sly yet surprisingly abundant sense of melody. And while the performances by guitarists Dean Lamb and Tobi Morelli and bassist Jared Smith are never anything less spectacular, they are hardly showy or indulgent.

Solos tend to be fluid, even effortless, brief and lend the appropriate color to the constant motion that surrounds them– an instrumental circle jerk this is not.

The album’s press notes sum up the approach perfectly: “pushing the boundaries of extreme metal and having a great time doing it.” All that makes for a listening experience that is as rewarding as it is exhausting.

4.0 Out Of 5.0