It's tough to contribute something original in any field, or music in particular, especially if you're creating music withing the confines of what basically is a subgenre of a sub-genre. Niche, extreme genres or styles like Brutal Death Metal, Technical Death Metal or - the combination of the two - Brutal/Technical Death Metal have somewhat rigid boundaries, and being original here means subverting expectations a bit or giving the sound a special kind of flavor rather than reinventing the wheel. DEVOURMENT have achieved a sound that is ridiculously brutal but also catchy, NILE add a Middle-Eastern flavor to Death Metal, SUFFOCATION combine blistering techy riffs with catchy grooviness, DEFEATED SANITY are balls to the wall brutal, but throw some sick techy riffs and breaks. In any case, (Brutal) Tech Death isn't a style of music that moves you emotionally, it mainly dazzles you with skill and technicality, but it can be very catchy if it has good melodies and fast guitar playing in combination with brutality and groove. That's the winning formula that makes bands like SUFFOCATION great, and it's why I can listen to PSYCROPTIC's "The Isle of Disenchantment" any hour of the day, any day of the week.

The San Francisco band ODIOUS MORTEM might not be a household name, but they've been around since the late nineties and have released two very well received full-length albums. The reason for the gap between "Cryptic Implosion" (2007) and the latest album "Synesthesia" was, as far as I can tell, that members of the band focused more on their duties in DECREPIT BIRTH. The debut "Devouring the Prophecy" came out on Unique Leader Records, but they've switched to Willowtip afterward. And this piece of trivia is actually illuminating when it comes to their style: the band plays Brutal-Tech in vein of SUFFOCATION or DEEDS OF FLESH, so obviously they did fit into Unique Leader's roster at the time, but their music has a bit less of a cavemanish aspect and somewhat more of a refined, techy aspect, so they do fit into Willowtip's mold in a way (you know: "forward.thinking.metal"). If you also consider that their lyrics and album art are a bit more "adult" then the average Death Metal band's (for example "Synesthesia" has an abstract album cover and even "Cryptic Implosion" had a quite stylized cover; the lyrical themes are also not stereotypically Death Metal) - it's a match.

There are ten songs on "Synesthesia" which are all short and sweet, and so the album also isn't overlong. The band doesn't goof around, no intro or interludes etc., it's all very hard-hitting stuff. A lot of what's going on in the songs is really tasty - from the riffs, to the overall guitar work, the drumming, the execution is top notch. The songs are mostly written around groovy SUFFOCATION-y riffs and they always development in some interesting way. The bands riffing game is very strong, just listen to that neat noodly Tech riff in the opening of "Condemnation Foretold", and you'll find very cool riffs throughout the record. The lead playing is outstanding: the above mentioned song, for example, has a whole long middle section with some really flashy and tasteful leads and solos, some solos even have a bit of a neo-classical feel to them, for example in "Replenish the Earth". There are some cool compositional ideas like in "Ruins of the Timeworn", where a playful, catchy riff is followed by an atmospheric break, "Eagle's Tower" has a climactic ending with harmonious, flashy twin leads and thunderous drums and vocals joining in. "Synchronicity" is a cool instrumental number: it's for the most part Baroque chamber music played on electric guitars with a death metal ending.

But even with all these positives, the record lacks something that would give it extra "oomph". It is too well written and executed to be called generic, from a technical standpoint ODIOUS MORTEM are impressive, but the music could use more hooks or more innovation or experimentation to sound more catchy and fresh. That being said, it's a very solid record well worth listening to, especially if you feel nostalgic for the heydays of Brutal-Tech.