''Solipsist'' is the debut studio album by Southern California

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

The Zenith Passage The Zenith Passage is an American technical death metal band from Los Angeles, California founded in 2012. They are currently signed to Unique Leader Records. To date they have released one EP, Cosmic Dissonance, and one LP, Solipsist. They ...

. It was released via

Unique Leader Records Deeds of Flesh is an American brutal death metal band from Los Osos, California, U.S. They were formed in 1993 by Jacoby Kingston, Erik Lindmark (1972–2018) and Joey Heaslet, and remained active until Lindmark's death in 2018. They founded t ...

on April 15, 2016. It is the band's first release for

, with whom they signed in 2013. The album focuses on the concept of

solipsism Solipsism (; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known an ...

. The album features a guest vocal appearance by Fallujah's Alex Hofmann, and guitar solo by Wes Hauch (ex-

The Faceless The Faceless are an American technical death metal band from the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles. They released their debut album, ''Akeldama'', in November 2006, and a follow-up, '' Planetary Duality'', in November 2008. The band's third ...

). The cover art was done by Ken Sarafin, who had also worked with

Skinless Skinless is an American death metal band from Glens Falls, New York. The band formed in 1992 and disbanded in 2011, but reformed in 2013. History Skinless was formed by Ryan Wade and Noah Carpenter in the town of South Glens Falls, New York ...

, The Kennedy Veil, and Archspire. Per figures provided by

Metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

news site MetalInsider, the album sold 720 units in its first week. A lyric videos was released for the song "Holographic Principle II: Convergence" on January 20, 2016. On March 14, 2016 the band debuted a lyric video for the song "Deus Deceptor" through

MetalSucks MetalSucks is a heavy metal music-themed news website. The site features reviews, interviews, information on latest metal releases and blog-like posts from the writers, most notably Vince Neilstein and Axl Rosenberg. History The site was foun ...

. The band made the album available for streaming in full on April 13, 2016. The band released a music video for the song "Deus Deceptor" on June 15, 2017. In a 2018 interview with Casting Metal Podcast, McKinney noted, to some controversy, that Keene's role in the production of the album was extremely limited. According to McKinney, Keene, after collecting money from the band, made no progress on the production on the album for "seven or eight months". As a result, Unique Leader made the band find a new producer for the record, thus the band went with Ohern, who tracked the entire album (with the exception of some vocals tracked by Keene) in a week.

Release and reception

Metal Injection reviewer Nate gave the album a 6.5 / 10 score. He referred to the album as a "technical death metal gem", but lambasted it for its similarities to

' Planetary Duality, referring to the album as "Planetary Duality 2". A professed fan of the band's debut EP ''Cosmic Dissonance'', the reviewer noted that if every song were as original as "Deus Deceptor", the album would be "unforgettable", but finalized his review by calling the album a "doppelgänger of a 2008 album". Heavy Metal blog "Angry Metal Guy" gave the album a 3.0 / 5.0. He praised the production quality of the record, but drew immediate parallels between the sound of Solipsist and that of

' first two albums, going so far as to call the band a "copycat act". He noted that the album would likely sound "more like The Faceless than "The Faceless" if the (then) upcoming

In Becoming a Ghost In Becoming a Ghost is the fourth studio album by The Faceless. It was released on December 1, 2017 through Sumerian Records. It is the only album with Abigail Williams' Ken Sorceron on vocals, The Zenith Passage's Justin McKinney on guitar a ...

continued down the path of Autotheism, diverging from

' original sound.

Track listing

Personnel

The Zenith Passage * Greg Hampton – vocals * Justin McKinney – guitars, mixing, engineering * Rob Maramonte – guitars * Luis Martinez – drums

References

{{Authority control 2016 debut albums The Zenith Passage albums