Tegmentum – Evolvement

Tegmentum is a name that reached my ears due to Dawn of Ouroboros vocalist Chelsea Murphy taking the role of lead vocalist here as well. My fondness of her other band made this one an instant point of interest, and combined with some online teasers of what looked like 1000 string guitars, I knew this was an album to look forward to. But I couldn’t really be ready for what hit me when I finally got to play it. Despite having sat through a bunch of extreme metal albums since the beginning of this year, I can easily say that Tegmentum dropped the most brutal album of 2023 so far. And it will be a very difficult one to top.

It’s funny how you tend to expect the filthiest deathcore bands with the highest amount of slow-down breakdowns to come across as “most brutal”. But that never really happens. The more formulaic and predictable something gets, the harder it is for you to be caught off guard. And that’s why Tegmentum takes the winning cake. No one can possibly anticipate what this album has in store. It’s unique, monstrous and cathartic, and it throws one unexpected moment after another for the entire duration.

Tegmentum – Accolades (feat. Yvette Young)

The band’s sound seems to be a combination of ruthless djenty riffs, technical death metal elements and a little bit of deathcore, ripped apart, mutilated and reassembled into a manner of auditory Franckenstein monster, coated in Devin Townsend style orchestrations. The production, mixing and mastering creates a full, massive sound and clever effects like panning and volume variations are used to enhance the experience even further.

The composition itself is pure madness. The guitar riffs sound like they were ripped from a Jared Dines djent battle that actually takes itself seriously rather than posing as a meme. The low strings are used almost all the time. And jokes aside, I’m not sure how many strings they actually used but I’m willing to bet it’s more than 6. This results in an unhinged, roaring sound from the guitars, combined with a purely thunderous drum sound. Given that the band is a 3-piece, I’m not even sure if there is any bass in there but I don’t think it’s even needed. On top of this, the writing is very progressive, occasionally combining complex time signatures and alternating the djenty headbangable moments with tech-death styled blasting. Tempo may also vary within a song.

Tegmentum – I Remain

The guitar solos sound like they could’ve been pulled from an Animals as Leaders or early Intervals album, but there is a more dissonant edge to them at times. There are also guest appearances from Yvette Young on ‘Accolades’ and Nik Samson on ‘Genetic Assimilation’. This melodic edge is a very powerful component to the album since most of the metal bombardment is noisy, chaotic and relentless, and it needs something smoother to balance it out.

This is the point where I would say that an album like this gets overbearing, and I’d present that as a downside. But as it turns out, it was deliberately made that way. The album’s concept is, and this is not a metaphor, a musical representation of what it’s like to go through a manic episode. And when I found out this conceptual idea, the entire listening experience changed for me. The album starts off with an orchestral intro, sounding peaceful, maybe even somewhat euphoric. It seems to be growing higher and higher but as it progresses, darker textures punch in and make it seem as if the upward direction of the music is being choked and twisted into something else.

By the time the riffs hit and the first proper song, ‘Moments Ago’ kicks off, it’s clear that we’re dealing with some sort of inner struggle. Both music and lyrics get gradually darker, more frantic and pressing as the album progresses. A sort of entity is described that first emerges into form as if born from the protagonist’s mind (‘Emergent Properties’) and then gradually corrupts the environment of memory in a form of hivemind psychosis until, at the end, the protagonist succumbs as well. It’s fascinating how the imagery is kept vague but the sensations of hopelessness, confusion and overwhelm are made so tangible, both in the choices of words as well as in the sonic textures and musical dynamics. The further you go through the album, the rougher the sound gets. You get more sudden rhythmic shifts, more explosive breakdowns that rupture the pace, more horrid sound effects and more hectic guitar runs. Everything intensifies and presses on the listener to the point of overwhelm and at the end of the album it all goes silent as if it were never there.

Tegmentum – Genetic Assimilation (feat. Nik Samson)

There’s an atmospheric component as well, and it follows the same downward path of distortion. The intro (‘Innocuous’) shows lush string sections and clean guitars, which make a return in brief moments throughout the first songs (‘Moments Ago’, ‘Accolades’). But somewhere along the way, the orchestrations become sinister, and various disturbing sound effects appear, akin from a sci-fi thriller soundtrack. By the end of the album, all that’s left are desperate screams, fading in the distance.

Chelsea Murphy’s vocals might be the one constant throughout the album. Her dry, relentless screams with endless sustain and massive volume make a fitting performance for the instrumental colossus laid down by guitarist Michael Ball and drummer Andrew Baird. And on top of doing both high and low growls, which I already knew she’s more than capable of, she also seems to throw a filthy deathcore nuance to some of the high screams, which goes really well with the modern djenty sound of the album.

Having sat through this album a bunch of times, I think the best thing about “Evolvement” is also the worst: it’s 100% unforgiving towards the listener. In terms of heaviness, complexity and emotional delivery, it is a multidirectional onslaught that simply overwhelms you. I certainly wouldn’t recommend this as a recreational listen. But for that same reason, I find it a spectacular achievement in terms of musical expression, because it fully delivers the experience it’s aimed for, and simultaneously gives a whole new face to tech-death that I never encountered before.

Track List:

1. 1. Innocuous (03:00)
   2. Moments Ago (04:04)
   3. Accolades (06:30)
   4. Amygdala (07:21)
   5. Emergent Properties (00:44)
   6. Genetic Assimilation (06:27)
   7. I Remain (06:58)
   8. Gospel of Sand (09:20)