Separatist – Closure

February 2014 • self-released

I haven't really gotten tired of black metal yet, but lately I've been thinking that maybe death metal is where it's at. I've been starting to dig and discover a bit more recently, and of course there's plenty of good stuff to be had. I'm not sure if Separatist is a good representation of where the genre has been lately and where it's going, but Closure is (if nothing else) a real experience.

It's some very interesting death metal, highly technical yet still the sort of technicality that allows for some really brutal sounds. It's almost grindcore-like at times, but aesthetically it's very definitely death metal. Blasting, double kicks, some tremolo picking and some nasty grinding riffage. There's even the occasional black metal sound once in a while. Not to mention some progressive-like sections with clean singing as well—yes, it's true! It kind of shocked me the first time around; how often do you hear clean vocals in death metal (at least, the kind that doesn't entirely lend itself to that style like Gojira)? Yeah, not often.

And that's all just in the first track.

Yes, after a while it does spiral into the sort of incomprehensible trip through a lightning-fast changeup of sections and styles; Closure is a hugely dense album and there's simply so much going on at any point that it's very difficult to ride along with it much of the time. More established death metal veterans will probably have an easier time with it than I did, of course. That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of great ear-catching rhythms to anchor onto now and again ("Carrier" has a good selection, for one). Maybe it's just one of those albums that's best in small doses.

I haven't heard too much modern death metal that isn't horribly derivative or boring, but Separatist is doing something right (as bizarre as it can get). Recommended if you can stomach the sheer brutality.