''Relentless Mutation'' is the third studio album by Canadian

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

Archspire Archspire is a Canadian technical death metal band from Vancouver. They have released four studio albums and are currently signed to Season of Mist. History The band was formed in 2007 as Defenestrated, but changed their name to Archspire in ...

, released on September 22, 2017 through

Season of Mist Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, pag ...

. It is the first album to feature bassist Jared Smith, who replaced bassist and vocalist Jaron Evil who departed in 2014. The album is a concept album revolving around a telepathic cult called "A.U.M.", and their experiments on human biology. In February 2018, ''Relentless Mutation'' was nominated for the 2018

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

Metal / Hard Music Album of the Year.

Promotion and release

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for the album's premiere single, "Involuntary Doppelgänger", was released on July 5, 2017. In addition to "Involuntary Doppelgänger", the band released three additional singles to promote the album: "Remote Tumour Seeker" on July 28, "Human Murmuration" on August 22, and "Calamus Will Animate" on September 18. An instrumental lyric video was released via Season of Mist's

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channel to promote the fourth single "Calamus Will Animate". The album was made available for streaming in its entirety via Season of Mist's

channel on September 21, 2017.

Reception

The album was praised by critics. Heavy metal review blog Angry Metal Guy named the album as their September album of the month, calling the album one that took Archspire's sound to the "next level", and praising it as "one of the most inspiring contributions to tech death that I’ve heard in a long time, hitting that perfect blend of intensity and technicality with the neo-classical flare of early

Fleshgod Apocalypse Fleshgod Apocalypse is an Italian symphonic death metal band. Formed in 2007, the group resides in Perugia and are currently signed to Nuclear Blast. They have released five full-length albums. History Formation and ''Oracles'' (2007–2009) Fl ...

. In their 4.0 / 5.0 review of the album, the blog cited Archspire's ''Relentless Mutation'' as the album that would "make their legacy", and praised it as "innovative", stating that Archspire had now established themselves at the forefront of the tech death genre. The blog would go on to rank the album at #7 in their best of 2017 list, with reviewer Kronos calling the album the best tech death record since Spawn of Possession's

Incurso ''Incurso'' is the third and final studio album by Swedish death metal band Spawn of Possession, released in 2012. The album title is Latin for "I raid" or "I attack." It features two new band members, Christian Münzner on lead guitars and Erl ...

. Heavy metal blog Heavy Blog is Heavy also praised the evolution of the band's sound, stating that it "shows a band with a perfect sound somehow evolving and becoming even more perfect. They would place the album at #5 on their 25 best albums of 2017 list. Metal Injection ranked the album at 13 in their best albums of 2017, and called the album a "great step forward for death metal" while praising Oli Peters's vocal delivery.

Chart performance

The album debuted at number No. 14 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, No. 15 on the Hard Rock Album chart, No. 34 on the

Independent Albums The Independent Albums chart (previously titled Top Independent Albums) ranks the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays (EPs) in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by '' Billboard'' maga ...

chart, and No. 46 on the Rock Albums chart.

Track listing

Personnel

Archspire * Oliver Rae Aleron – vocals * Tobi Morelli – guitars * Dean Lamb – guitars * Jared Smith – bass * Spencer Prewett – drums Production * Dave Otero –

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, mixing, mastering *

Eliran Kantor Eliran Kantor (born 13 September 1984) is a Berlin-based artist and illustrator known mostly for creating album covers for metal bands such as Testament, Soulfly, Helloween and My Dying Bride. He created the artwork used on various releases issu ...

– cover art * Adrien Bousson – layout

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Archspire albums