The passage of time has been a bit off in the past few years, so you’d be forgiven if 2017 doesn’t feel that long ago. However, for LA-based progressive death metal practitioners The Zenith Passage, it may as well be a lifetime ago. Fast forward six years, and their magnificent sophomore release, Datalysium, out July 21 on Metal Blade Records, cements the band’s arrival as future (and maybe current) kings of prog/tech death metal. Everything about the record feels more alive–the stop/start riffing, the otherworldly vocal work, the slyly organic production choices, and a real emphasis on the vibrant aspects of prog.
Everything about Datalysium feels like a constant, concerted push and pull between extremes, and that dynamism is why The Zenith Passage’s sophomore record is a clear frontrunner for AOTY conversations already. Efficient, effective, and just plain fucking fun, this is a record to be enjoyed as much as it is analyzed. Interestingly, it’s a project that lacked momentum until the trio took shape, as guitarist/keyboardist Justin McKinney shares:
“There has been some time between records, mainly due to just needing to take a break from metal for a little bit and to explore my harmonic palette. I had been writing Datalysium on and off since 2017, as well as writing another record that was vastly different from this one. I didn’t really start putting all of my focus into Datalysium until the pandemic when [two of the bandmates] came in and we finished recording ‘Algorithmic Salvation’ and released as a single. Seeing the response got us all stoked and more invigorated from the response of the scene.”
Like the best extreme metal math equation, there’s a literally plotted 4-axis coordinate for this record: Necrophagist, the Shuggs, Extol, and Cynic. While each of those bands are legends, it’s the integration of the individual components and where each song fits on that graph that elevates Datalysium into something wholly unique and powerful. At once daringly progressive and surprisingly hooky, this is a record that dazzles and soothes in equal measure. The musical ingredients bled into the themes, like a sonic virus, as McKinney shares:
“With this record the goal was always to blend the rhythmic motifs of Meshuggah and Decapitated with the finesse and intensity that is Necrophagist. The synth was always an aspect too as it not only plays a huge role in defining the sound of the record, but to also reflect the underlying theme of the record, the integration of machines with humanity.”
“I have known Dave Otero for a while but never had the opportunity to work with him on a record until Datalysium. Dave is definitely one of the best in the industry; he is a dude that just gets the sound we are going for without really having to describe much to him. We all really vibed together while making the record, and he had a lot of great ideas that we never would have tried unless he had the idea. So not only is he a top notch audio engineer, but a great producer too, which is a rare thing to find. We were aiming to keep the clarity of the guitars but beefing up the overall impact of how everything sounded, being able to keep lower gain on the guitars in faster moments but punching more when it counted. The fantasy of how I heard the record in my head was not only achieved in reality but exceeded that fantasy, thanks to Dave.”
Thematically, Datalysium pulls from a host of genres (noir, sci-fi, horror, the surreal) to create something like an anthology of stories that feels both human and artificial, boldly exploring the limits of technology, with all the promise and panic that will induce. Hell, even some of the stop-start riffing reminds me of the whip-smart and wicked fast dialogue from classics like The Maltese Falcon, just a teensy bit more digitized. A fantastic recent novel with parallel themes is Jaroslav Kalfař’s A Brief History of Living Forever. So what did McKinney want to talk about with Datalysium?
“The themes that we explore in this record,” he answers, “which is the essence of The Zenith Passage, is the integration of machine with humanity and the effects of that. Datalysium is a mild conceptual record, drawing parallels from western religions’ habit and practice of worship to that of the habit and practice of technology (i.e., social media use and its effect on society). As technology progresses, we become more deeply ingrained in it. This is inevitable, and we are all participating. Datalysium is a term we made up for where we feel people are being promised their lives will end, in the splendor of some digitized immortality. A place we are willingly building for humanity as we continue to invent ourselves out of relevance and usefulness.”
You can order Datalysium from Metal Blade Records. Follow The Zenith Passage on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
