Bay Area denizens Aenimus formed in 2011, releasing well-received debut album, transcend reality, independently in 2013. Boasting a guest appearance from Eddie Hermida (All Shall Perish, Suicide Silence), the album garnered considerable interest form the metal community and, following on from two years of relentless touring, Aenimus set about working on their sophomore effort. An eleven-song concept album, taking its cues from horror novels such as The Shining, The Dead Zone, IT and Hannibal, the album is a remarkably cohesive effort that sees the music ebb and flow as each story unfolds.
Opening on explosive form, the gleaming tech-death of before the Eons gets the pulse raising with dizzying guitar riffs, complex time changes and guttural, death-screams. It’s a bruising, yet auspicious, start to the album and even here, at their most viscerally demanding, Aenimus hint at the layers of progressive melody that will become increasingly apparent as the album unfolds. Next up, the monumental Eternal boasts a Meshuggah-esque tech-groove that simply shreds the flesh from the bones as Alex Green unleashes his ferocious roar. However, that only serves as part of the story and the band shift musical focus as a dream-like passage unfolds, heralding moments of serene beauty overlaid with clean vocals. It’s a bold move, but each new passage melds so seamlessly with the last that fans will be too entranced to initially pay much attention to the stunning musical diversity on offer. It is only with time that the true majesty of the band’s ambitious sound-scaping becomes fully apparent, the band deftly mixing the explosive with the ethereal in order to draw those with heavier tastes ever deeper into their labyrinth. With elements of the head-scratching art-rock of Botch on display, the ritual is a dynamic, pulsing piece of music that sees some of the album’s heaviest riffs juxtaposed with moments of calm that only add to the overall intensity of the track. With guitar work caught somewhere between John Petrucci and Dave Gilmour, the latter half of the song is a prog-metal dream ending in a classical overture that adds a filmic feel to proceedings. With the strings still echoing in the distance, the savagery with which Alex opens up my becoming is all the more shocking, his commanding vocal tearing through the ether with devastating force. As the song progresses, clean vocals are added to the mix and, in just three-and-a-half minutes, the band blaze through more ideas than most bands manage across whole albums. It leads perfectly to the mesmerising haze of the dark triad, with synths and prog-infused guitar runs all slamming physically against the stabbing riffs and coruscating percussion. Bruisingly heavy, there remains a jazzy sensibility in Seth Stone’s bass runs that underpin the track, and these give way to stair-stepping guitar leads that will leave the listener breathless.
Heading into Between the Buried and Me territory, Between Iron and Silver draws from a variety of disparate elements, pitching churning guitars and complex time signatures against guttural roars and soaring cleans. A genuinely progressive, genuinely thrilling track, between iron and silver captures Aenimus at their most catchy, yet for all the swathes of melody on display, none of the visceral punch of the music is sacrificed. A shorter track, the overlook is as menacing as its subject matter, the djentish guitars rebounding on an elastic groove that is utterly crushing. However, it remains the case that Aenimus are not interested in making things easy for the listener to follow, and although the track ends in a firestorm of unhinged guitar work, it is only after a sublimely progressive mid-section that sees guitarists Sean Swafford and Jordan Rush unfurling their wings. Similarly malicious in intent, caretaker is as ferocious as Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the titular character, the drums of Cody Pulliam pummelling the listener with all the force of a swinging Roque mallet and there is no redemption here, only cold fury and untrammelled violence, although a piano coda does sweeten the blow somewhat. It segues into the moment of ethereal post-rock beauty that serves as the introduction to second sight, an echoing piece that engages in a progressive heaviness reminiscent of Devin Townsend. With Alex flagellating his vocal chords from the outset, day zero is the album’s heaviest track, and although it is shot through with progressive elements, there is no let up in the band’s hellish assault. It leaves the short, ambient instrumental, dreamcatcher, to bring the album to a suitably epic conclusion. Grand, cinematic and ambitious, it provides the perfect finale to the record, allowing the listener to awake from the reverie the album induces and return to the daylight once more.
Technical death metal can be a cold genre, so mired in exceptional musicianship that the heart is stripped right out from it. This is, however, far from the case with Aenimus who have tempered their skills with a lyrical conceit that is incredibly evocative. It drives the music to ambitious heights as the record traipses across a series of dreamscapes based, primarily, around the novels of Stephen King. It makes for compelling listening and the band use a mix of technical death metal, progressive and post-rock elements to craft an album that truly challenges and fires the imagination. An album to get lost in, dreamcatcher is a masterclass in how to craft technical death metal with real depth and it is highly likely that the album will feature highly as one of the year’s most enigmatic yet technical releases. 9
