Coexistence – Collateral Dimension

Band: Coexistence
Title: Collateral Dimension
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Release date: 23 October 2020
Country: Italy
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

So, a couple of weeks ago my dear friend and collaborator Tom included Coexistence in our Underground Updates article due to Transcending Obscurity Records going heavy on the merch for the release of the Italian group´s upcoming release, “Collateral Dimension”. Italian technical death metal he called it, and I was instantly intrigued. The album is the group´s first full length release and is coming up this October. Although still some weeks ahead, I simply couldn’t stand by anymore and wait for the release date to draw closer before I would give it a go.

“Metaphysical Essence” came up first and lurking noises built up the atmosphere. Although obvious right away that this is indeed technical death metal, the guitars play melodic riffs alongside the drums plumbing away in blazing speed. The vocals are a mix of growls and higher shrieks, making that modern death metal sound that seems very popular these days. “Symbiosis of Creation” also contains a nice picked intro riff with dissonant chords. At times it’s a bit like an extreme version of Gojira, although not with as much soul in it as the French group.

I liked the way this group managed to weigh their fast parts to the slower heavier ones in “Eclipse”, somewhat quite thought through which at some point, has what sounds like four different melodies on top of each other. A bass solo comes by, which made me wonder if a fretless bass was being used. If so, then this is quite impressive as the music is quite complex and the exact right notes would be quite hard to hit.

“Perception” is the first extremely different track on the list, as its almost a ballad in this context. Almost a bit jazzy. It breaks a barrier in a way which is quite appreciated as when the title track comes around, Collateral Dimension, there is a classic death metal snare intro and once again its off in the usual way.

The guitars and drums work quite well with each other throughout the entire album, and as “Floating in the Celestial Wave” closes this work heavily reverberated clean guitars are brought forth, creating that dreamy mood. It goes on for about two minutes before finger picked riffs are back. When the vocals come in it gets a bit more traditional death metal and I must admit, I do prefer those parts.

Some may say that this may be a bit too much for a full-length album as for those who are perhaps not hard-core fans of genre might have a hard time to keep up with the album. The group does perform flawlessly, and the tracks are in themselves interesting and diverse, which shows some song writing skills. But if you are a fan of modern technical death metal, then this is all good and dandy. 8/10 Julia Katrin

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8/10 To Greatness and Glory!
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