Replacire is back in action.
Seven years after their previous album, the band now led by Eric Alper (guitar), Kee Poh Hock (guitar), Zak Baskin (bass, live for Black Crown Initiate, Fuming Mouth), Joey Ferretti (drums, Necronomicon Ex Mortis, live for Black Crown Initiate) and James Dorton (vocals, Black Crown Initiate, The Faceless, live for Ne Obliviscaris) unveil The Center That Cannot Hold, their third album, on Season of Mist.
Bloody-Tongued and Screaming immediately falls upon us with full power, before revealing its jerky Prog roots that perfectly complement the violence, while the vocalist shouts, joining his comrades in the waves of rage. The musicians redouble their savagery and precision on The Center That Cannot Hold, the eponymous track, which proves to be as virulent as it is complex in this disturbing composition projected at full speed before moving on to the equally virulent Living Hell, which benefits from a few slower, darker passages to become oppressive. A Fine Manipulation allows the musicians to explore dissonance, clear vocals and extreme heaviness, before giving way to The Helix Unravels, where the rhythmics once again ignite to create a kind of hectic ride that lets unpredictability and power rub shoulders while blast and double kick take turns. Drag Yourself Along the Earth might lead us to believe that the band is finally slowing down, but this is only the case thanks to these waves of gentleness, which are totally annihilated on Inglorious Impunity, where the explosive patterns return in full force without forgetting that touch of skill. The Ghost in the Mirror returns to the airy aura with its hazy notes that are occasionally overpowered by brutality before giving birth to Hoard the Trauma Like Wealth, which features relatively similar patterns with a few more soaring harmonics, once again fuelling the sometimes sudden contrast. Transfixed on the Work continues in this vein, as abrupt and devastating as it is meticulous and thoughtful, before the album comes to a close with Uncontrolled and Unfulfilled, where the band fully exploit their Prog roots, sometimes even putting Death Metal violence to one side before injecting it once more.
Replacire‘s long The Center That Cannot Hold is a true masterpiece. We definitely have everything: violence, fury, technicality, dissonance, aerial passages… the band knows exactly how to manage each element of its style to make the mix coherent.
85/100