It is a well known fact that Technical Death Metal has progressed much in the last two decades, since the late 90's when it mostly got mixed with the brutal sound, until the beginning of the second millennium, where it developed to a fresh and brand new genre of its own, and as it got started by some of the well known classics in this genre such as DEATH, SUFFOCATION, ATHEIST in the late 90's, with their own experimental sounds, it later got a bit improved by ''today's classic bands'' such as the well known pioneers NECROPHAGIST, BEYOND CREATION, SPAWN OF POSSESSION, and many more. Now, as the years pass, more bands come out on the musical scene with faster and faster records. To be honest, even if would kill for this genre, many of today's bands really have no clue about what they are playing and what do they want to achieve in their sound. Most sound dull, boring, repetitive, and just like the band's guitarist and vocalist Colin Butler said, bands somehow follow the same formula. Okay, I'll stop being an asshole now.

There are, of course, some true gems out there. I myself love speed and brutal, speed of light-reaching technicality, but still, the structure of songs, the lyrical content, and the way you play it is what matters, not the speed. Band's experiment a lot nowadays, adding progressivity and brutality to their sound, and some of those pretty experimental and really well structured bands is the one I am going to talk about right about now, is the Nashville, Tennessee (USA) based band, VIRULENT DEPRAVITY! There's less than a month left until they will bomb us with their phenomenal debut record, so I'm here to say a few words about it, however, if you truly think you can wait the album out, without getting spoiled, stop reading, now. The band got started by Colin's amazing vocal and guitar abilities, and when Malcolm Pugh, founder of the band's current label The Artisan Era Records, (also known from his various projects such as INFERI, A LOATHING REQUIEM, & DISKREET) saw that, they instantly made a deal. It took a while to get the demo's re-recorded, get the artwork, and basically everything, but the wait will be over on April 7th, 2017!

So far, the band has presented us with one single, and there's another one coming soon. The record itself has an amazing artwork, and the lyrics actually have some pretty deep meanings, but the rest is up to you to find out. As mentioned previously, the band consist of Colin Butler, Malcolm Pugh, and Kévin Paradis. I am aware the first name might be new to some, but that'll hopefully change in the not so distant future. The record starts off with ''Serpentine Messiah'', which enters the scene with a calm riff, but only for a short while, because in a few seconds the vocals pretty much start dominating on the overall atmosphere, which, by the way, is incredibly fast, but not exclusively and only focused on speed, as previously mentioned. The structure of the song is somewhat incredible, it's so full of rhythms, dizzying guitars, incredible riffs, incredible drumming performed by the master himself, Kévin. The bass is sharp, crystal clean, and audible. The vocals are mostly growl based, but they are not monotone, they are sometimes more aggressive, sometimes not so much. Still, the solo's, almost everything is so perfect on this track. Almost forgot, the solo was done by a guest guitarist named Mark Hawkins. This project is literally about to release its debut album, and it's already crushing and showing some mad skills on how to play. I would recommend listening carefully, especially if you have a band that plays a similar style of music.

Next on, ''Spineless Obedience'', with madly insane vocals, an incredible song structure, somewhat jazzy parts, which actually makes a lot of sense, since the guitarist mentioned that he was hugely inspired by classical and jazz projects such as MILES DAVIS, SUN RA, CHARLES MINGUS and most importantly BEETHOVEN. This is just a shorter version of the complete list, not to be rude with cutting out anyone. It wasn't on purpose! The track itself is medium speeded, the riffs are original, refreshingly unique and razor sharp. You can clearly hear how badass of a guitar shredder Malcolm actually is! ''Your Demise'', the next, third track on the album, starts off with blasting drums, high skill and speed guitar riffing, vocals of various styles, and an overall brutal atmosphere, but, what I noticed on this one are the bizarre vocals, these actually sound familiar, the vocalist even filmed himself doing some, in his car(!), and named them ''Dual Vocal Monster Attack'', if the name isn't stating the obvious, they do sound really beasty and mad, unlike most of today's boring and monotone growling techniques. You really need to hear this to experience the whole structure of the dominating vocals over the instrumentations, however, this album is almost half solos(not kidding), and I pretty much appreciate that, because that shows actual skill and capability of using instruments, even though these guys are literally destroying them with their brutal techniques.

The mix sounds incredible, yes. Nothing, almost nothing is too silent, everything is perfectly audible, while still not being ''lost'' in the sound. I am experiencing sound like if I was standing right next to the band while performing ''Fruit Of The Poisoned Tree'' in its entirety! That's a rare thing to hear, and it's all thanks to Mike Low, who did the mix on the album, and also did it for INFERI and OUBLIETTE. ''Desecrating Eden'', the fourth track, instantly starts off with slower riffs, only so it could get crushed by a mini guitar solo in the very beginning. The vocals sound deeper than ever, they are incredibly raw-sounding, not actually raw, but they are still understandable, at least in 90% of the song. Everything is so powerful, melodic, and it's actually putting me to sleep, which is a good thing, when it comes to me, because good music really makes me fall asleep, which might be the opposite for some. However, this track absolutely has a reason to put you to sleep with its amazing keyboards done by Jimmy Pitts best known from EQUIPOISE, PITTS MINEMMAN PROJECT; not just the keyboards, but this track is incredible, the solo is so blood chilling but somehow still incredibly uprising and powerful!

Off to the title track! ''Fruit Of The Poisoned Tree''! Painful, gut-tearing scream based vocals, incredibly powerful, full of energy growl based vocals, a nice, slow, ever-speeding up rhythm, incredible drumming. Being that we're halfway through the album, it really feels like forever, not in a boring, but in an interesting, curious way, where music actually entertains you to that level where it seems like it's literally ''talking to you''.  While we're lost in the sea of riffing and incredible drums followed by the furious vocals, let's take a moment to appreciate the nice artwork done by Justin Abraham, who also collaborated with Malcolm in the past, and hopefully will continue to do so, like he did on some of his projects such as his main band INFERI and his solo project A LOATHING REQUIEM. The sixth track, ''Bad Drug'' starts off with a heavy, deep-tuned guitar riff, also pretty deep vocals which are fully focused to follow the riffs, which are shooting at the listener from each side, forming an incredibly furious and powerful storm of music, when all gets combined, and if that wasn't enough, on this track, Nick Padovani of EQUIPOISE is present with a guest solo, too, and he absolutely nailed it.

We finally arrive to the(currently) only publicly available single ''Beyond the Point of No Return'', and I must say that even though I have heard countless demos on various platforms, but mostly on Soundcloud, those are nothing compared to the final tracks, and this one proved exactly so, with it being a sick track to introduce the public with the music. Although this one has no guests, the original members nailed it, you can hear some already familiar vocalization, incredibly fast BASS, on point drums, and basically, it's a good song, but we're far from the end (damn I love this sentence). There is something uncharacteristic about the eight track ''Only Human'', and the reason behind it is that it actually doesn't kick you in the face with its blistering technicality, but it starts off with a nice, haunting ambient moment, slow riffs playing in the background, slowly speeding up. It might be my fantasy, but I feel like this intro has a strong message, connected to the overall lyrical and artwork content. It might be just the fact that humanity is trying to play god too much, not realizing how unimportant we actually are, compared to the size of the universe and everything that exists.

Now that the music has begun, I must introduce you to the fact that Craig Peters guests on the track with a solo, and I am almost certain that you have heard this name before, but I'll help, he's the legendary guitarist of DEEDS OF FLESH, and not a lot of people know, but he does have a solo project, too, named DESTROYING THE DEVOID, which has released its debut album last year. The mastering of the album is getting a bit rawer, but that's nothing to fear of, the music is still sharp, and that's exactly what matters. You can't even bother when you hear those nasty, sick vocals!

''Mechanized Defilement'' is the ninth, and penultimate track on this amazing record, it features some constantly stopping and ''jumping' riffs, brutal, growl, scream vocals, guest guitar solo by Elijah Whitehead(ENFOLD DARKNESS). It's a weird track, but I'm sure the last one will surprise everyone with its mysterious musical content. Here we are, ''Crushed by Futuristic Filth'' is the tenth, and last track. Holy hell what a name for a song! Also, those guest spots are whoa! There are several, one of them being Sims Cashion on guitars, and the other one Nathan "Sounds" Bounds. Because, why the f*ck not? This song even has a piano part, which just blew my mind, not just the fact that I heard it, but the fact that it exists here, on this very record of pure, speedy, technical death metal. The riffs are incredible, chilly and not too fast, they slowly fade out in the distance, making this track the perfect track to ending a record.

If you are open to experimentation, but you like really heavy stuff influenced by various other non-Metal genres, give this album a go, and of course if you are a fan of the following bands: ORIGIN, ARCHSPIRE, THE ZENITH PASSAGE, GOROD. I might be liking Technical Death Metal, but this band has to be LOVED, guys. LOVE 'em. LOVE this record. It's coming out on April 7th WORLDWIDE!!!