CREDIT: ATAXIA
One of London's finest death metal bands Ataxia is on its way to achieving top levels with albums like Calignious.

Marginal amounts of people can really put up with brutal technical death metal. I can see why it’s not for everyone, and I am not always interested in technical elements myself when I listen to metal. I listen to it more for the intense speed, the intricate and well-composed songs and the pounding percussion that relentlessly breaks through each track.

I can say, however, that this somewhat recent Ataxia release is something I can really get into. It has all the elements previously mentioned, but there is a great emphasis on guitar solos and technically demanding performances. Again, it’s not for everyone, but if you like the sounds of blast beats, shredding and inhuman vocals, then you will most likely enjoy one of London’s finest metal acts.

Calignious is a pretty well-paced release. Not much time is wasted on one riff or section for too long, and that is integral to music like this. You constantly need changes and shifts in tempo or feel to not wear out the music.

This happens easily because the music doesn’t have much in terms of dynamics or formulaic melody. It is probably why it’s either something you really like or really hate. Death metal specifically is unique in a sense because it is ferocious organized noise and that is hard to pull off effectively. Many bands try this avenue but a lot get lost in too much repetition, boring riffs and muddy tones. Not to mention, some bands will label themselves as a death metal while playing relatively mid-tempo songs and having some sort of modern grunge vocalist moaning about trucks or his girlfriend or something.

Blasphemy.

On the topic of performance and standards, this type of music really does have some bar to live up to despite people wanting to argue otherwise. Unlike punk for example, which embraces human error and loose simplistic songs, metal – especially technical stuff like this – needs to be tight and powerful. You can’t beat around the bush with your skill because most of the people listening are probably just as musically inclined as you if not better. There just simply isn’t room for bands who write their riffs in 10 minutes and practice once a month while playing shows at least three times in that same month. It takes serious time and effort thus making bands like Ataxia rare.

Ataxia does well to avoid these aforementioned pitfalls by incorporating interesting progressions.

There are some few points where the music is melodic in the sense that it follows a more traditional pattern as opposed to dissonant key changes. This prominent near the end of the song “Unbalanced” with its guitar riff that climbs up some sort of scale before dropping down into the hell that Ataxia has spawned from. It’s just enough to really pop out in the track, and I think that is a cool shift which kept me from skipping a song and ended up making me want to cover them in the first place.

With good engineering and song writing, the overall production of the album is top notch and the band certainly didn’t compensate for anything in its performance. If I had to put it side by side with something to get some people interested in listening, I could compare it to the technicality of Cryptopsy mixed with the brutality of Cattle Decapitation.

While maybe it’s not quite at that level yet, this album is certainly one of the better products our city has put out, and it does not look like the band will stop anytime soon.

You can listen to the album at ataxiacanada.bandcamp.com.