Do you like death metal?  Progressive metal?  How ‘bout some really goofy music videos?  Yes?!  Then this album is for you!  

Hello Metalheads, this is John back with another early album review!  Cyborg Octopus is set to release their next album on September 27th and it is called Bottom Feeder.  Their label is Silent Pendulum Records who are amassing quite the nice roster of bands! This west coast band has a little bit of everything in their primarily death metal based music.  

The tone of this album seems to have the same feeling of their previous effort(Between the light and air) in a very good way.  Very fun, goofy and almost bouncy tracks.  But they do know when to turn up the serious tones when they need/want to.  “Defective Immediately” being one of the more serious tracks.  The band really shows how diverse they can be on this release.  They almost managed to blend their sound from their last two albums while managing to really tie it all together in a nice Death Metal inspired Progressive album.  This album also features way less Saxophone(other than a few select tracks) than the last one. 

The one thing that really didn’t hit me until I started writing this review, is just how dense this album is despite the goofy tone the music videos have at times!  I must’ve listened to this three times and was still picking out details that I missed the first two times through.  

The first track called “The Righteous Waves” really starts off with a banger.  Immediately it starts off with fast paced guitar and drum work, which I tend to expect!  Then transitions to a less “notey” passage before going into the chorus section.  This song has such a good groove throughout the whole track which just makes me want to headbang the entire time.

“Dreamkiller” was the second music video and single that Cyborg put out for us all to hear.  I first watched the music video and I sure was glad.  The video is all about a guy who is addicted to playing the saxophone and goes to jail after buying illegally.  The highlight is (in the video) when the judge hits his gavel, they use a cowbell sound.  This made me laugh quite hard the first time I watched the video.  As far as the song goes, it is easily one of my favorite tracks from this band so far!  It has everything, really fast guitar playing, some serious grooves, elite drumming and a nice breakdown to round it all out.  

Their self titled track “Cyborg Octopus” has a very heavy keyboard\keytar presence and the pre chorus really sounds like it could belong in a “Chilren of Bodom” song!  It also features some very heavy and brutal sections, with a sung chorus.  The guitar solo was kind of a letdown because it didn’t have a keyboard solo at the end of it, which I expected after such heavy keyboard presence earlier in the track.  

The other music video that made me laugh quite hard was the one for “Midas”.  This track was fantastic musically as well.  It features Kyle Schaefer from a few bands.(Fallujah and Archaeologist) The whole track has a really great groove the whole time and flows very well from one section to another.  Sometimes it slows way down to a halftime with the drums and then other times it speeds up as well.  

“Defective Immediately” is he one track I was talking about how Cyborg, could turn on the serious note when they wanted/needed too.  This one has a way darker sound to it and really hones in on the death metal and even deathcore aspects of what they play.  There are a few very heavy breakdowns and lots of blast beats which make me say deathcore!  

So overall I would say this album is great from start to finish!  This band has become part of my listening rotation since I found them almost three years ago and will definitely stay there with this album.  I gushed about the drummer and guitar player already, the vocalists are very steady throughout the whole album.  The keyboard and saxophone chime in with their parts at the appropriate times and sound great.  This album has a very, very good 9 out of 10 rating in my eyes and will definitely be in my top 10 for the year when all is said and done.  

https://cyborgoctopusband.com/

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