Californian outfit MADROST channels in their third full-length "Essence of Time Matches No Flesh" an articulated space-themed Trash/Death, aiming to Tech/Prog sides of the spectrum and characterized by good riffing, giving unicity to each song. Nothing is taken for granted in this 37 minute LP, all packaged by a proper production that enhances MADROST release. Kicking off with "Eyes of the Deceit", we receive some hints of what we'll find in the next half hour: a haunting arpeggio soon gives place to hard riffs, with brief clean openings in between that give an evil aura to the whole composition; Tanner Poppitt's voice, harshly screaming in the boundary between trash and death, gives tension and balances those melodic inserts. After pushing the listener with its rhythm through accelerations and slowings, the eerie arpeggio makes its return over a double-bass carpet (maybe for a little too long, with the risk of sounding a bit repetitive) before ending into a gut freezing guitar solo.

Influences from death and black metal, as well as classic rock and atmospheric and psychedelic elements fill MADROST's sound throughout the album, in a fit way which is able to give each song originality and keep listeners' span of attention high, despite a little verbosity in some passages. Once again, spooky guitar arpeggios open "The Silence in Ruins", where a bassist solo introduces the vocals, carpeted by beating riffs. After the Swedish-style harmonization of "From Sand to Dust" and the catchy riff of "Abstractions", "No Future" represents a half right experiment: introduced by a sci-fi atmospheric and melancholic mood and a classic trash section, the band loses the grip on an "European" acoustic melodic bridge, unable to actually justify its insertion in the song structure, which is 'saved' by the following almost power metal guitar solo.

While "Scorned" memorability stands in the drum work and the sudden acceleration in the outro, driven by harsh vomited vocals. "Dimensions" drops the final heavy weights, with brutal riff bursts and blast beats, in one of the more powerful and remarkable acts in this album. While flaws for this album may be found in some less original outros & breakdowns and the suffocation of the bass which truly emerges only on rare occasions, MADROST were able to release a record able to stand on their genre cornerstones while infusing originality through contaminations, without losing themselves in a lengthy record and maintaining things solid, fast-paced and entertaining, yet deep enough to find new layers at every listening.