The perfection that is the Technical Death Metal supergroup that is known as Continuum is releasing their second album this Friday February 22nd.  My good friend Austin Weber at Metal Injection premiered this beast of an album on Tuesday, and can check it out in in its entirety right here.  Wanna know why this band is so great? The veterans of quality metal bands of many subgeneres, and ones that made very big impacts on the genre. Vocalist Riley McShane fronts Allegaeon and Suns Of Aurelias (3 bands!), lead guitarist Chase Fraser plays in Conflux (ex Arkaik, ex Decrepit Birth and ex scour…..impressive resume, I’d say), Rhythm Guitarist Ivan Munguia plays in Deeds Of Flesh (ex Arkaik, ex Brain Drill, and ex Odious Mortem), bassist Nick Willbrand of Eviscerated (ex Flesh Consumed)  and newest member Ron Casey of Inanimate Existence on drums (ex Arkaik live, ex Rings of Saturn, ex Flesh Consumed)…….so again, look at the quality of bands (lots technical) these super talented artists have been in.  So I reiterate the obvious and going on a stretch saying this will be a top record of 2019, but not really a stretch. Let’s get rolling.

Allegaeon rips, no lie.  They’re a modern melodic technical death metal band with some serious flavor, but man Riley’s voice is SO PURE on this record.  He’s squealed and breeeeeeeeeed like I’ve never heard him before! Methinks he’s been holding back, but on “Designed Obsolescence” he sure as heck didn’t hold a dang thing back.  His consistency in his gutturals is amazing…..maybe that’s why he was temporarily recruited to front brutal death metal legends Pathology (for a few minutes, I think?).

What can I say about Ron Casey? It’s no secret I’m WAY too obsessed with Inanimate Existence and his drumming has helped catapult Continuum to modern day legendary status. The band’s debut was so cool and groggy, I couldn’t say no to check it out and have been curious to what the guys had been up to.  Then I see updates get excited…..then get more excited when Ron is added to the group to replace Spencer Edwards (their original drummer).  His precise drumming is always a treat, no doubt.  His blast beats are so clean, so fast and so….beautiful? Ron won’t overdo it, and won’t overfill you with them tasty fills.  He adds a consistent element to a technical band, and holding down a great rhythm keeps a project as wild as this at bay.  Having a great drummer in a band as this is SUPER important, and Ron adds the RIGHT flavor on his fills and its the rhythmic backbone along with Hillbrand’s loud thundering bass with fills as tasty as Casey’s (I JUST RHYHMED!).

The guitar talents of Chase and Ivan are just well…..damn, that swear is the best adjective that describes it.  The guitar leads are so melodic, powerful and shockingly not over the top in a tech band.  What is though, are those meaty techy riffs the guys have come up with for the album. The production is absolutely crisp, especially the guitar. Overall this album just fucking smashes, mixing enough brutality and enough technicality to combine for an absolutely stellar death metal effort to blend all sorts of extreme metal into one amazing album.  Coming in at a mere 32 minutes, you’ll have this album on repeat as much as I have (about 4 times since the stream dropped, no lie.  And you don’t wanna know how many times I’ve heard the 3 singles before Tuesday’s stream…..so we’ll leave it at that!) I urge you all to preorder this album like I did (CD and both vinyls HURRAH) because it’s a 2019 contender and after I finish composing this article I’m adding it to my list (the good part of the list, that is!)! Check out the record when it drops Friday and check out the guys when they go on a quick west coast tour with Alterbeast!

Definitely hit up these shows if you live out west with the guys active bands you don’t know when Continuum will play next…..and also for the Alterbeast guys I have no idea who’s in that band but I saw GABE SEEBER is filling in on drums for the band.  Michael Alvarez who left the Beast is filling in on this tour (that’s what they all say….right?) on vocals, but there’s been no confirmed drummer or vocalist in the band…..so we’ll see what the future holds for Alterbeast.  Aethere are no slackers either, this lineup is stacked!