Virial is releasing their sophomore album “Transhumanism” this Friday September 24th and this was my first introduction to the band. Wow, what a treat my ears where in for…..and what an album! What can I honestly say? Virial really brings the heat on “Transhumanism” with precise, melodic guitar riffs and well thought out complex arrangements on this almost hour long adventure. Want a technical death metal band that doesn’t go too crazy but keeps great groove? Virial is calling your name, with even more treats. There aren’t any lazy parts in the music unless its a head banging section, well you know what to do there. The band never bored me and my ears were always occupied, but never overloaded which is huge for the genre.

Lots of bands tend to overwrite, overproduce and overthink technical death metal. The melodies, uniting or tying the music together and intelligent track layering are 3 of the biggest things to write really good tech death. Virial passes with flying colors, over here at least. Every section doesn’t have a harmony, but there’s always some sort of guitar melody. As a guitarist I think its important to introduce harmony in your music, but not overdo it…..and Virial puts on a great display of it. There’s some real good melodic lines they keep pushing forward, and even better harmonies that come of said riffs during your adventure of “Transhumanism”.

The vocals are very good, consistent and straightforward. Mainly, they lie in the low to mid range and never hit the higher end of the scale. Also a great note is they are very up front, but don’t overpower the mix concerning the rest of the music. For an album as involved as this, the vocal performance is impressive and the production is equally as key. Now, it is so crisp and clear you can hear everything without any kind of strain. You can be talented, but production that is crisp and smooth makes your sound much better.

Guitar work and vocals don’t mean shit unless you have a great rhythm section right? Well, the drums here are insanely impressive and easily handle everything the band has carefully composed. There’s even some bass leads on the album, believe it or not. I think the only thing left here to do is prepare to have your minds blown…..the band dropped the album stream yesterday with Metal Injection that is for your ears.

“Transhumanism” is one of the more impressive releases of the year between songwriting and production and a great entry for fans wanting to try technical death metal. If you’re a big Obscura, Beyond Creation and Necrophagist fan the consensus will be very positive. The album is being released on Vicious Instinct Records and will be officially released this Friday September 24th.

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