First things first: listen to Spiraling Infinite Chaos at Bandcamp.
Musically, 2015 started slowly for me. I was dealing with a lack of interest in the genre and while I suppose I have recovered my enthusiasm to a certain degree, I can't shake the feeling that years past are truly past and we won't see a reprise of their greatness.
Spiraling Infinite Chaos was one of the first new records I heard after starting to come out of my malaise.
To be kind, the record kicked me out of that mode and got me pretty excited.
I can't say that every other record (or most records, for that matter) will get this kind of reaction out of me in 2015. But I do know that getting kicked in the pants is incredibly helpful and part of the reason I'm writing this review to begin with.
Rellik is nominally a thrash band, though the harsh vocals and technical drumming belie influences from other sub-genres.
On the whole, I would say that six of the eight tracks on here are awesome and would constitute mandatory listening for anyone who wants to hear the best metal of 2015.
Obviously, that means that two tracks aren't quite up to snuff. In my opinion, those would be "Nothing but the Faith That Failed You" and closer "The Descent". "Nothing..." fails the listener in that, instead of being a tight, to the point ass-kicker like...the rest of the album, it meanders and can't really decide how it wants to dissect the listener. So while it's not terrible, per se, it's not on the same level as the other tracks.
"The Descent" is an instrumental outro. Yawn.
Okay, okay, not every band is going to write an instrumental as awesome as "La Villa Strangiato". Point taken.
Still, if you're going to close the record with an instrumental, it should probably be more interesting than "The Descent". Either that, or change the sequence so that the excellent title track closes instead.
That leads me to a thought that I pondered recently on Twitter. I was trying to think of what I would call a "perfect" record, and failing that, how many "mulligans" I would accept on a "great" record.
In the case of Spiraling Infinite Chaos, even with two mulligans (the aforementioned tracks that aren't up to par), it's still great. It's undeniably great.
It's going right up to the line, though; if there was another song that wasn't up to snuff, I'd have to dock points and call it "good" rather than "great".
Thankfully, Spiraling Infinite Chaos has enough ass-kicking tracks and staying power that it should remain among my top records of 2015 when all is said and done.
