Nothing negative about it
A debut album is always something special. It marks the first steps into a vastly unforgiving industry and is usually the first chance at establishing a creative identity to a large audience. In the case of Replicant, the standard for production was set incredibly high. The quality of the album right out of the gate parallels veteran death metal acts in both intensity and substance.
Negative Life begins with an amazing opening riff on “(Spit) Into the Void” that goes from an eerie ambient backing track to tremolo picking, gravity blast beats, broken up by choked cymbals in unison by rumbling down-tuned guitars. Michael Gonçalves’ vocals multiply the intensity exponentially and would stand up against some of the most prominent artists currently at the top of the food chain in the genre.
The use of multiple time signatures and cycling between distorted and clean instrumental tones add a healthy amount of depth and complexity to the album which does not come unappreciated. The sentiment remains the same across the board, with tracks such as “Sewing Seeds in DeadSoil” and “Vessel of Iniquity” standing just a step above the rest.
The bottom line is that Negative Life is utterly an utterly stunning album that contains all the pieces of a release that will undoubtedly ascend past the obscurity that surrounds most debuts and solidify a seat at the proverbial table for the members of Replicant for years to come. The sense of pure aggression and hostility that this album embodies will be hard to shake and there is nothing negative about it.
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