Commencing this dystopian passage with the absolutely relentless symphony of Biomechanical Horrors this has more then enough darkness and atmopsheric to give you a proper feel for what's to expect throughout this opus, delivering a short sharp shock with Eyes In The Sky which touch on the topic of surveillance drones(music video above will show this) yet again this is unnervingly dark and portrays the horrfic idea that we're launching head first into some sort of surveillance state(Big Brother is watching), things are slowed down a bit with the darkly atmopshericand doom laden riff fest that is I Used To Be Human this feels like humanity has become some sort of digital entity or a humanoid if you will,the musical composition is at time really awe-inspiring and epic while at the same time having a subtle element of tragicness which is pushed by the overall dystopian theme, possibly the heaviest and most intense track The System Shock combines deavastating drumming layered on top of a dark symphonic template,we're also treated to some fantastic ochestral elements not to far removed from Black Metal in the vein of Emperor.
The standards are escalated with the phenomenal The Perfect Host we're introduced to some brilliant clean vocals which add even more depth and a somewhat Progressive element and even more awe-inspiring passages that will leave you speechless, the basslines in this are another thing to be lauded and celebrated and create a even darker forboding atmopshere, th synths layered on the spoken sample at the beginning of The Unravelling Array bring the atmopshere to even darker levels ,this one delves into more black metal elements and the melodic passages become even more prevelent all of this is layered on those sublime symphonic templates ,it begins to feel like we're appraoching some sort of Orwellian nightmare the future we get into this album.
Getting to the penultimate stages of this magnificent opus we delve into the sublime Synapse The Hivemind which goes into the topic of being a slave to the system and being deprived of any sort of basic needs making it feel like you're appraoching the end times and having no control of it happening, the releentlessness is pushed into the stratosphere with Deracinated this really pushed the symphonic elements to even higher levels while still maintaining that dystopian feel, this also gives off the incoming doom has become too much to bear and the struggle is unsurmountable, closing track Slaves To The Algorithm(Execute The Code) is even more relentless then what preceded it and offers plenty of crushing brutality combined with the trademark symphonic and melodic elements,this touches on the topic that we're lost control of ourselves due to social media and that we've lost some of the qualities releated to human interaction,this for me is the best way to close this nightmarish dystopian opus.
Eight albums in and the brainchild behind Sonus Mortis Kevin Byrne so no signs of stopping and continuously delivers absolutely sublime albums that will be remembered in years to come,not only does he consistently give us these memorable offerings ,the willingness to add different elements with each release has to be praised and complimented to the fullest extent,Synpase The Hivemind is definitely some of the best output he's released,say what you will(and i know i have folk who agree) most of the topics/themes throughout this album (and the previous two masterpieces) are happening in plane sight right in front of our eyes but we chose to be distracted by trivial topics instead,this masterpiece is like some sort of warning of the impending futuristic surveillenace society,if you happen to find an album as sublime as this let me know, my ears want to hear such magnifience.
RATING:9.8/10
