Review by chrisc7249 on April 19, 2022.

Yes, I've crawled back out of my hole to write more reviews after a run in with writer's block. Turns out, talking about a genre where every band sounds exactly the same doesn't make for great writing material in the long run. Still, I adore technical death metal and I want to express my love for it by giving percentage increases in the overall rating of review scores to my favorite albums. Now, at least one person has seen my negative review for this album and is now reading this one (at least I hope so). Yes, I gave this album a poor 3/10 when I reviewed it last year, and labeled it a forgetful mess of non-songs. So, how could I do such a 180 in overall score just like that?

Well, I don't know. I listened to this album probably about 20 times when I gave it that score. Now, maybe 30 listens in, it just really grew on me recently. Finally, the songs stuck in my head and became something noteworthy. To be quite frank, I don't know why I didn't like this album. It's everything I love about technical death metal. It has crazy vocals, a sick fretless bass, tight tech riffing, spastic drumming and a great production. Somehow, when I originally listened to this album those first 20 or so times, I just… didn't get it, I guess. Yet, I kept listening to it because I was intrigued by it. Now? I get it.

Spectrum Of Delusion have done an amazing job at creating some sort of technical death metal "movement." A cinematic experience, if you will. This album, both lyrically and musically, sounds like the soundtrack to a really intense video game or movie. It goes through so many ebbs and flows, ups and downs, rushes and pauses, solo after solo after SOLO, that in the end… it does kind of make sense. While individual songs are good on their own occasionally, listening to it from front to back and taking everything in all at once is really what unlocks this album.

It's rare to find an album that needs to be taken in all at once to be understood, at least in technical death metal. Tech death is a good genre to just listen to a song here and there and not have to deep dive into the album, but Neoconception is different - to get the full experience, you have to take the 50 or so minutes out of your day to listen to it front to back, and that's when the potential is unlocked. You get an album that flows well, feels emotional and real and remains superbly technical. It's actually probably one of the better tech albums to be released in 2020, a year that was absolutely stacked for the genre.

To everyone I steered wrong the first time around, fuck me, right? This cunt just told everyone it was bad and left a scathing troll-like review, then disappeared back into his hut to masturbate to other tech death albums. Well, I take back what I said. This isn't just a good album, it's a great album and is worthy of having time put into it to understand it. To make up for my shitty previous review (though, let's face it, all my reviews suck ass), I bought a t-shirt from the Artisan Era store and now I wear it regularly in the summer. Stay tech.

FFO: Beyond Creation, Augury, Aepoch

Favorite song: 'Destruction'

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Felix on September 18, 2019.

Honestly speaking, I am not familiar with the whole discography of Requiem, a band that originates from Switzerland. I emphasize their origin in order to make clear that they are not from Sweden, although their musical approach has much in common with the death metal legions from the Scandinavian country. Requiem also play vehement death metal and some morbid lines seem to be stolen from the dungeons of formations such as Grave. But the dudes from Central Europe do not need to take a jealous look at the work results of other bands. They create their own form of heavyweight mid-tempo parts, brutal blast beats sections and everything else in between. To call their approach highly original would be a lie. The leads at the beginning of "Signal Zero", for instance, have a lot in common with typical Bolt Thrower tunes (and yes, I am aware of the fact that Bolt Thrower do not have Swedish roots.) But we all know that the guidelines of the lethal genre do not allow much wiggle room. Thus, a certain number of similarities to the outputs of some competitors from other countries cannot be avoided.

Yet Requiem do not try to score with predictable tunes. "Diary of a Damaged Brain", my personal favourite and therefore logically and in all objectivity the best song, delivers an apocalyptic hardcore touch and the sinister chorus seems to be supported by the early Napalm Death. Just watch out for the insane "of a" screams that ennoble the chorus line. It is no exaggeration to say that the Swiss berserks hammer the title in the head of the listener. These screams stand in sharp contrast to the typical growling of the lead vocalist and the emotionless voice that appears inter alia at the beginning of the song. Its profile is completed by nightmarish riffs and deadly breaks. Unfortunately, this song is second to none. There are more good tracks, but none of them delivers this fascinating mix of insanity, brutality and vileness. Anyway, the album provides a dense and powerful dose of gnarled death metal. Songs like "Extinct by Evolution" or "Inconsistent Consequences" do not lack of pressure and they are truly not at risk to disappoint the fans of the genre.

Between these basically good tunes and the aforementioned highlight stands "Bloodcult". It reflects one of the strengths of the musicians. They are able to compose bulky riffs while keeping an eye on a good flow simultaneously. I am not totally fascinated by this formula, but I like it and it has an extraordinary touch. By contrast, the sound of the album shows a very generic approach. One can expect the typical death metal sound and, fortunately, it is a vigorous, transparent and mighty production. Thus, Requiem have not made any serious mistakes while writing and recording this output. The double strike at the end underlines this statement. "Setting the Score", levels the soil with merciless riffs and blast beats, but it holds tiny melodies as well. "Two Sides Within", the final eruption, brings the album to a furious end. In all fairness, I think that Swiss death metal has never sounded better since the early days of Hellhammer.

Rating: 8 out of 10