From Bandcamp, “While founding member, principal composer, Jason O’Donnell aka The Archetype is steeped in an affinity for & consciousness of the Proto Doom Metal tradition, there is way more going on in his compositions & productions than what can be easily placed into one box/genre. That awareness shifts my attention to The Archetype’s at times, hauntingly pained melodic voice juxtaposed against ‘blackened’ discordant whispered screams or guttural growls. The album is A post-apocalyptic, glitchy outpost floating in a bio mechanical ocean that is appearing to lead us along, with its protagonist/hero I Nomad, into an even deeper hybrid of analog & digital sounds that provide the landscape for a cast of broken antagonists trapped in a narrative of Self Worship & self-determined demise.”

The album has eight songs, and “Concussion Dream” is first, and that’s exactly what is sounds like…rumbles in your head, with spoken words that tell you to “cross the threshold,” “carry this message,” and “wake up.” “The End of the Wide Awake Nightmare” begins with clean keyboards that are followed by a low, slow, and crushing riff, but the clean vocal provide a lot of contrast with the at times jovial music. You can hear the buzzing of an alarm clock at one point, but each of the elements don’t combine well…the song sounds disjointed, which is the way it should.

“Submerged by the Ghost of a White Whale” is a 15-minute opus, plenty of time for the band to explore. I get an ALICE IN CHAINS vibe here, with a slow riff that is massive, and vocal harmonies. The harsh vocals however are angry, and they butt up against the clean vocal harmonies hard. By the end, the song just grinds you down to your worst self. “The Doomsday Zealot of Amnesia Island” has a heavy and pounding bass line and here I get some Alternative/Nu Metal vibes within the strong vocal harmonies. “Lysergic Liturgies of a Schizo Messiah” sounds close to the title. This time, the vocals are cadenced at times and they go from levity to anger in a split second. The doomy music is fueled by a good deal of energy as well.

“D.I.E. Sect” has another super-heavy bass line that plods forward with each note striking you hard. “The monster inside of you is the fear you reflect,” he states, pointing at you. The music crawls, bringing pieces of dirt and filth as it moves along, and psychedelic elements tear at you as well. “The Science of Slow Moving Monsters” is another song with a heavy cadence of rap/alternative style Metal, as the album shifts from spending a lot of time in the muck to feelings of haste and wondering how it might end. “Temple of Thieves” answers, and there are more alternative/Nu Metal tones. This was a very personal album that one could label as strange, and unsettling at times. It is not here to make you comfortable…it is here to shake things up, and the unusual nature of the album is something that every Metalhead should experience.