Sophicide – Perdition of the Sublime

The second part of Terrible Certainty’s coverage of Willowtip’s one-two throat-punch combination of technical death metal deals with newcomer Sophicide. While veteran Yonkers crew Malignancy is all about chaotic brute force, newcomers Sophicide deal in deadly finesse and velocity. Although from opposite ends of the tech-death world, Sophicide and Malignancy are both masterful at their craft, and offer up intriguing and entirely worthwhile albums; something the genre’s lacked as of late.      

Sophicide is the brainchild of German multi-instrumentalist Adam Laszlo and Perdition of the Sublime is his debut full-length, following a self-released 2009 demo. At the age of 22 Laszlo seems to have the ear of the underground metal press, as this album seems to be getting adoring reviews all over the net. It’s quite easy to hear why. Perdition of the Sublime is a dazzling display of melodic tech-death that will blow back the hair of fans of Anata, Gorod, Spawn of Possession and the like. Tornadic riffs, tempo shifts and barreling percussion are in mountainous supply here, and are dealt out with the class and polish of a much more seasoned act.

One could draw a comparison to another Willowtip darling from about a decade ago: Arsis’ James Malone. You’re not going to confuse the two acts, but it wasn’t long ago that Malone had the net abuzz with his songwriting and musicianship on the Willowtip melodic tech-death classic A Celebration of Guilt. Laszlo has a similar creativity and technical command.

On top of its prowess as a tech-death record, Perdition of the Sublime would also seem to have a load of crossover appeal. It’s an uber-modern, polished approach that has the dizzying shred and ample melody to appeal to the more adventurous fans of a band like Nevermore, for instance. The stop and go riffing will be well received by fans of Gojira, and the occasional chunky thrashy stretches recall death thrash’s Demonoid. Sophicide is accessible death metal that’s not entry-level death metal. This is high quality work capable of pleasing the casual death metal fan as well as the cynical lifers. Sophicide is the real deal, and Adam Laszlo is a force to be reckoned with.

Perdition of the Sublime on Willowtip’s Bandcamp

Sophicide on Facebook

Sophicide on Myspace

Willowtip