Hold on to your seats folks because Earth is about to go bye-bye. Intercepting Patterns are a German progressive death metal band the powers of the void run deep in them. As we’ve explored in the past, metal has a unique relationship with science fiction and the ability to conjure many of the thematics and tropes of the genre. Intercepting Pattern’s new release, The Encounter, does a terrific job of showcasing just how. The guitar tones are brooding and deep, the samples used convey the sense of ironic claustrophobia in what is the single largest “place” in existence, and the overall feeling is of something both cold and strangely alive at the same time. The release, clocking in at just over thirty minutes but technically comprising of one song, is being split up into ten different pieces of its releases. We are lucky to be premiering the first two segments of it today, “Extragalactic Radio” and “Signal-to-Noise”. Head on down below for the cold embrace of space!
Much to contemplate. First off, those drums sound familiar, right? They’re performed by none other than percussion magician Lille Gruber (Defeated Sanity, Ingurgitating Oblivion) and possess his distinct jazz-y, almost drunk sensibility to time signatures. The music is built around these off-kilter drums, channeling plenty of their jazz into their death metal. Whether it’s the incredibly intricate synths that usher in the two minute mark of this piece, feeling almost improvised in their wildness, or the hard-hitting chugs that escort much of this track, it all feels essential and urgent. So too the bass, which starts off “shackled” to the guitar parts but gets plenty of freedom later in the track.
Sprinkle in the vocals that grace the second part of this “track”, laying out the science fiction concept with a clear malevolence and you’ve got yourself the full package. Listen how the guitars strum an unsettling leading part “behind” the vocals, amplifying the oddness of the story being told while the main guitar line gives flight to the scale and aggression of its canvas, space itself. It all comes together to an increasingly satisfying degree, weaving its part into one massive, aggressive, and fascinating whole.
And I’m told there’s a Jimmy Pitts (Eternity’s End, NYN) guest spot later in The Encounter, which is always a selling point. If you are likewise convinced, head on over to the band’s Facebook page or the label’s Bandcamp page to pre-order this beast; it’s going to be a wild one.