Year: 2014
When I ask you to describe a band that truly represents what death metal is, your mind will probably hark back to the old school legends like Death, Possessed and Cannibal Corpse, right? Now let me ask you another question. Name bands that represent all aspects of death metal including progressions, technicality, brutality and melody. Well, whatever few bands pop into your head, it's time that you added another band to that list. I'm talking about Cognitive, a new band hailing out of New Jersey.
This is a band that is relatively young to the scene, with their formation happening only in 2011. Over the past three years, the band has already released one EP and this year, we see them releasing their debut self titled full length, through Pathologically Explicit Recordings.
Now, you may wonder why you should check out yet another death metal band when there are hordes of them that are already making solid music. The answer to this dilemma is that you should check out this band because of their ability to bring in every aspect of death metal into play, through their well crafted brand of technical death metal.
Let me be more specific. Though on the outlook, Cognitive looks like yet another modern technical death metal band, their music has that unpredictable character as they weave in and out of different sub genres of death metal. Riffs are technical for most parts and the music is progressive. But in apt situations, the band moves into melodic parts and at times there are even little bits of slam in the music. What should be appreciated is that they maintain brutality in their music though they keep changing their direction.
Guitar duo Jake Iannaco and Rob Wharton keep it technical for most parts and even show that they are not afraid to unleash few catchy breakdowns at the apt moment. Art Sikora on bass and Mike Castro on the drums, together form a solid rhythm sections that remains stable and entertaining in the midst of all the chaos. Jorel Hart has a deep guttural sounding roar that sits well with all the brutality that these guys carry in their music.
The good thing about this album, other than what I've mentioned so far, is that it has a lot of hooks. While most technical death metal albums these days fail to be entertaining, this one is quite the opposite. The entire album, from start to finish is thoroughly entertaining. Production is done well, though I would have liked a little more raw quality to it.
Overall, this is a roller coaster ride, where one cant predict the direction that the band will head in next. Want melody, brutality, technical riffs, progression and death metal? Cognitive's got them all.
Rating: 88%
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