''Antithesis'' is the fourth studio album by

technical death metal Technical death metal (also referred to as tech-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that began and developed in the early- to mid-1990s, with particular focus on challenging, demanding instrumental skill and complex songwriting. Techni ...

band

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

. It was released through Relapse Records, on April 1, 2008. It peaked at #21 on the

Billboard Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart. This is the band's last album to feature guitarist and founding member Jeremy Turner. ''Antithesis'' was seen as Origin's breakthrough album; it ranked #7 on

Decibel magazine ''Decibel'' is a monthly heavy metal magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media since October 2004. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame. The magazine's tag-line is currentl ...

's Top 40 Metal Releases of 2008 as well as #6 on Metal Maniacs Top 40 metal Releases of 2008. Decibel would again rank it later on for their Top 100 Death Metal Albums of All Time (where it was placed at 85). The album was released on CD and limited edition colored vinyl with an alternative cover artwork.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Greg Prato awarded the album 3.5 stars stating "Although death metal and prog metal are usually thought of as two different subgenres of heavy metal, in certain cases, there's really not much differentiating the two. Case in point, Origin, and their 2008 release, Antithesis. Although they are extreme sounding in just about every way imaginable (guttural growls, stop-start riffing, metronome-perfect drumming, etc.), the instrumental prowess of Origin's players is mighty impressive here. But be forewarned -- there's not an ounce of melody detected anywhere (just front to back metallic brutality), as evidenced by such over the top assaults as the album opener, "The Aftermath," as well as "Consuming Misery" and "Wrath of Vishnu," among others. Whether you love it or hate it, most would have to agree that Origin's Antithesis is certainly death metal at its most complex and challenging. ".Prato, G.
Allmusic Review
accessed April 15, 2011 According to ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

'' which gave the album 4 stars, the band "...once again pack in more untrammelled ferocity and sheer sonic destruction then can be good for anyone's health". "The album hurtles by on a torrent of almost inhuman blasting, technical fret mangling and the vomitous vocal of James Lee. While there is always a problem that music that relentless can become a little one-dimensional, the blistering intensity demands your attention from violent start to battered finish", reviewer Dan Slesser writes, picking out "the jaw-dropping" 9.5 minute closing title track as the CD's highlight which "definitely slams the door in the face of all corners".

Track listing

Miscellaneous

* The quote before the title track Antithesis is from

J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is oft ...

. He is best known for his role as the scientific director of the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

: the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

effort to develop the first nuclear weapons at the secret

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

. In reference to the

Trinity test Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert abo ...

in New Mexico, where his Los Alamos team first tested the bomb, Oppenheimer famously recalled the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." * The ''Antithesis'' album poster appears in the movie '' The Crazies''. * The cover bears strong resemblance to a portrait of a

xenomorph The Alien (also known as a ''Xenomorph XX121'' or ''Internecivus raptus'', or simply a xenomorph)Alien: The Weyland-Yutani Report is a fictional parasitoid, endoparasitoid Extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial species that serves as the ...

that was painted by

H.R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...

Personnel

* James Lee - vocals * Paul Ryan - guitar, vocals * Jeremy Turner - guitar, vocals * Mike Flores - bass, vocals * John Longstreth - drums

Production

* Arranged & Produced By Origin * Engineered By Robert Rebeck * Mastered By Scott Hull

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antithesis (Album) 2008 albums Origin (band) albums Relapse Records albums