Friday 15 May 2015

Continuum - 'The Hypothesis' (Album Review)


Album Type: Full-Length
Date Released: 21/04/2015
Label: Unique Leader Records

‘The Hypothesis’ CD//DD track listing:

1. Hypothesis: A Profound Discovery
2. The Epiphany
3. Hypothesis: Evolution
4. Absolute Zero
5. The Awakened Creator
6. Wasps In The History Of The Weak
7. Perspective
8. Where the Worlds Were left
9. A Surreal Descent
10. The Steppes To Ascension

Review:

Progressive Tech Death group, Continuum, has released a satisfying slab upon us, the sparkling ‘The Hypothesis!’ 

Following somewhat to form, Continuum throws much at us in a fairly short time, but perhaps  less obvious, most of the songs are less than two and a half minutes long. This approach makes the album jam packed with riffs, double kick madness, and a scathing vocal attack. ‘The Hypothesis’ combines the heavy, complex stylings of both technical and progressive metal with the absolute brutality of death metal to create a punishing rabbit punch to the head. The production is slick, the listener is treated to a buffet of technical prowess both on the strings and the skins, and the singer still has the harsh vocals but retains the integrity of being understandable. Mixing is excellent, as it never buries itself under its own brutality, nor does it just stall with an awkward slow interval.

Overall the album is extremely well paced, as it strikes that precarious balance between just throwing content at you blazingly fast and not losing its cohesiveness, or being overly technical and getting in its own way. The songs range from the power violence length of ‘Absolute Zero’ to more normal 2+ minutes, and into the fairly common epic length of ‘The Steppes to Ascension’ at 9:06 minutes. The mixture of content, again with pacing, also gives us a nice breather with the instrumental track ‘Absolute Zero’, which in terms of tone is very industrial/black noise in its approach and ‘Where The Worlds Were Left’, is a very groovy interlude of badass drumming and what sounds like guitar sounds put into reverse. ‘The Hypothesis’ is absolutely perfect, and is like a refreshing whisky at a small club gig. It's soothing in its own way. 

With Slick production, a great sound, and stellar performances by all involved, ‘The Hypothesis’ by Continuum is a great addition to any metalhead's collection. 

Words by: Hunter Young

‘The Hypothesis’ is available here

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