Written by Westin
Protosequence – Bestiary
> Technical death metal/deathcore
> Canada
> Releasing April 5
> Lacerated Enemy Records
It’s been a while since my last review – anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I’d been doing other stuff for a while. Music took a bit of a backseat during the past few months but in my process of catching back up I finally heard a new record that compelled me to review. Every metalhead has subgenres they gravitate towards and shy away from – it’s the nature of the expansive sounds contained within the genre. For me, deathcore is one of those genres I have no interest in, and I can count on one hand the number of bands I like that play in this style. But that’s what makes this new Protosequence record so engaging to me, and I think it will grab you as well.
Formed all the way back in 2014, Protsequence released a handful of EPs and singles across the past decade but never managed to get to a full-length until now. The band is comprised of vocalist Josh Hahn (also of Art of Atrition, another tech deathcore band), guitarist and co-vocalist Dylan Parker, and a rhythm section of drummer Logan Vars and bassist Jacob Teeple. Our resident Kep says he’s a big fan and has been waiting for this LP, as I’m sure other fans of the band have been. Having perused a little of their earlier material, I can say the biggest change over time is a shift away from deathcore dominance towards more death metal.
The influences on this record feel strong – Cryptopsy and Archspire seem obvious as massive Canadian tech bands, but I also feel the history of Beneath the Massacre across the record. That’s another Canadian band who started out heavily in deathcore and slowly shifted to death metal, with their technical approach remaining consistent throughout, and one of the few deathcore bands I’ve ever loved. Protosequence’s appreciation of space, atmosphere, and production also feels reminiscent of The Faceless, another band with similar evolution. All of this is to say that the band is standing on the shoulders of giants and keeping their footing enough to stand on their own.
But make no mistake because the deathcore influences are still in your face and prevalent enough that they feel overt without becoming the central sound around which the record is built. Bestiary is at its heart a techdeath record, but it has enough deathcore elements to become an important ingredient.
Take album opener ”Sam” – many familiar techdeath elements like staccato drumming and bright shredding, a sense of space and space-y momentum. There’s even an instrumental bridge halfway through the track with some juicy bass and lush atmosphere. But across the track, and the rest of the album, these elements combine with a variety of vocal techniques that sound like they dance between death metal and deathcore, going low and high, between nearly clean shouts and distorted to the point of indecipherability, like on “Neither Fair nor Equal” which at one point just descends into an endless conveyor belt of gnarly pig squeals like a factory of squelching meat.
I want to give a shoutout to the utterly fantastic album art on Bestiary. We don’t talk as much about album art on here but in a sea of bands it really can make a difference, especially as the conflict between machine generated garbage and actual art rages on. Jose Cabe knocked it out of the park to such a degree that I wanted to write about this album before I heard a single note just because the cover art was so gripping. This is a merging of worlds with a vision and purpose that also doesn’t take itself too seriously to the point of becoming dry, and the art reflects that.
Track two “Baroness, Pt 1: A Falling Knife” kicks off with similar tech-y kicks and shred before the vocals hit like a lost-to-time Cryptopsy song. Then it settles into this very deathcore-style abrasive groove replete with flat heavy chords that could arguably be the first breakdown on the album. After that it returns to the sounds of the bridge from the opener, more atmosphere and bass emphasis, but this time paired with the vocals that lends a new frantic energy. As this continues into “Pt 2: The Handles We Reach For” this transitions to gang vocals and constant tempo changes.
There is some internal debate for me about exactly what constitutes a breakdown here, since tech is already definitionally constructed around tempo and structural changes to a degree that usually supersedes the traditional idea of a breakdown. But the deathcore influences are overt enough on Bestiary that I’m in the mindset to even think of a breakdown in the first place, which adds an element of texture and depth. “Imlerith” opens techdeath-y enough but then settles into a sonic slow that could be a breakdown, yet it’s so early that I can’t be sure.
One of the greatest strengths of Bestiary is the production. This is techdeath production through and through, with lush soundscapes and tons of space for instruments to breathe – Teeple’s fantastic and groovy basswork throughout the record is not only audible through the din but regularly gets active highlighting thanks to the production. Parker’s guitar tone crushes without approaching that synthetic and empty heaviness that seems to dominate so much modern deathcore. When his playing shifts to those more groovy and breakdown-adjacent sounds, that heaviness sounds meaty, and his more melodic high end and shredding could be found on an Archspire record.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Protosequence trimmed the fat off deathcore and took only the juiciest morsel elements to cook alongside their strong technical and song writing chops that feel like a deftly wielded butcher knife. The deathcore elements are enough to intrigue fans of the genre without risking any of the central death metal sound. Bestiary is heavy, groovy, and damn fun.