Tyrant Of Death – Parasite

What would happen if you mixed up Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory and Meshuggah, and put it all on really bad drugs? I'll tell you what – you would get a Tyrant Of Death record. Since I discovered this guy, it was very hard to stop listening to his music that infested the bloodstream just like a parasite, making me listen to it over and over again. Maybe I'm a bit subjective, but you rarely come across such acts that literally blow you away and make you believe that you never heard anything like that before.

Tyrant Of Death is a moniker for a Canadian solo-musician that records, programs and produces all of his records by himself. By far there are already five records, four of which were written during 2010 and the last one, Parasite, was released in January 2011. All the records are available for free download as the man behind the music is a strong advocate of art for art's sake, and we can only applause him for this decision.

Some of you may be troubled by the fact that it's a solo project because there are so many djent bedroom warriors raping their 8-string guitars these days that it starts to look ridiculous. Fortunately, Tyrant Of Death is quite different from the rest of the Meshuggah-offspring scene. Sure, there are downtuned guitar, machine gun riffs and polyrythms, but if the majority of djent wannabes are trying to water down the aggressiveness of Meshuggah or copy their sound in overall, this guy in contrast makes it even more aggressive and diverse by introducing dissonant industrial sounds, atmospheric synths and weird samples. The result sounds like a hybrid of IDM and Chaosphere-era Meshuggah yet remaining pretty audible and catchy to make you spin it over and over again. It's really amazing how the intricate balance between absurd sounds and crushing riffs is maintained here, but it's sure one of the main achievements you'll hear on Parasite. And did I mention that it's quite atmospheric? Parasite could easily fit as a soundtrack for a sci-fi horror movie or become your favorite CD for driving your car really fast and aggressive.

There's nothing much to say about the production on this record, because it's almost perfect – a trait that most similar instrumental solo projects are known for. The dense wall-of-sound production the guys from SYL were famous for have definitely inspired Tyrant Of Death as he uses a lot of samples and noises to create the same atmosphere of sonic density. The trademark low-tuned guitars sound really raw yet articulate, which definitely adds up to the evil sound on this record.

All I can say is that Parasite along with all other records by Tyrant Of Death is a must listen for anyone who loves innovative and aggressive music, and maybe is a bit tired of the mellow sounds offered by the current djent stars such as Periphery, Tesseract, Cloud Kicker, Chimp Spanner and others. It's evil, aggressive, intricate and massive – just as 21st century extreme metal should be.

1. Commence
2. Parasite
3. Liberation Out Of Chaos
4. The Gates
5. HyperSpace
6. Sealed Eyes
7. Spirometra
8. Scorching Ico
9. [Parasites]
Self released
Reviewer: twansibon
Feb 2, 2011
Next review: Dakon – Drakones

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