Hey there! How’s your week been? Yeah, mine too. Trust me: Nothing pains me more than having to take week long hiatuses from posting on this outlet. Since we last congregated, I learned that our Facebook page is essentially worth jack shit because I refuse to pay Mark Cuckerberg’s new monthly extortion fee in order to post more than ONE (1) link a month, a woman collapsed at my job (I guess she’s alright?), and my car decided to break down on the side of the highway at the least convenient time possible (as if there was a convenient time to do so). Ironically, I was attempting to listen to this very album when the last said episode occurred. Perhaps 2011 Hyundai Sonata shitboxes aren’t equipped to deal with the sheer intensity of Dissimulator.
For those in need of a refresher, Dissimulator, or Chthe’ilist minus Phil Tougas, is a Canadian technical death/thrash power trio who manage to embody every word I just used to describe their sound. We first reviewed them in early 2024, upon the release of their jaw-dropping debut album, Lower Form Resistance (Note: Disregard that sentence in the last paragraph regarding post-Killing Technology Voivod. I’ve grown up. Angel Rat rules.) In the years since, members have kept busy in other projects (See our current reigning “album of the year” hopefuls), but the strangeness of Dissimulator simply couldn’t keep them apart, resulting in their anything but a sophomore slump, Artifice Dissolves.
As suggested by its title and equally tripped-out cover art, Artifice Dissolves picks up where Lower Form Resistance left off. It is as spazzed out, schizophrenic, and Voivodian as its predecessor, albeit with an even proggier, sci-fi infused bent than before. The opening “Apophenic Rage” is an unrelenting slab of skronk-death. If Voivod and Gorguts conceived, its wretched spawn’s cries would sound like this. “Hungry Ghosts” tones down the speed, but hones in on mathematical riffage. Dare I draw comparison to Destroy Erase Improve era Meshuggah? You know, before Sweden’s djent godfathers LITERALLY went one-note? I think I just may.
The ripping speed and meaty thrashing found on the title track and “Alloyed” would have one believe these dudes dusted off their old Overkill and Exodus records prior to writing these songs, and that’s very possible as they lean more on the “thrash” side of the death/thrash equation. However, “Proprioceptor” retreats back to the weirdo, sci-fi tech death ethos which is Dissimulator’s true bread and butter. Sure, there are occasional thrashy outbursts, but the primary focus of Artifice Dissolves‘ back half is mind-twisting instrumentation and Cynic-esque futurism, whether it be through robotic textures or uber-prog accents. The closing “Robostrobos” brings it all together, fusing prog, thrash, and death together for an explosive grand finale.
Dissimulator are a band whom even when giving you “more of the same”, so to speak, will have you on your toes, never quite sure of what’s to follow. I’m well aware of that last sentence’s contradictory nature, defying any and all sense of logic. In the same breath, Dissimulator’s brand of tech metal falls into the same wheelhouse. It shouldn’t make sense, this amalgamation of ’80s mosh riffs, technical wizardry, prog ambitions, and OSDM brutality. And yet when forged by this trio, it does. Convention dissolves with Artifice Dissolves.
8 out of 10
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Genre: Technical Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Voivod, Cynic, Gorguts
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