photos by Kristel Boucher
“Neon Metropolis” is the newest single from Quebec-based death/thrash trio DISSIMULATOR, formed by members of Chthe’ilist, Atramentus, Beyond Creation, Incandescence, and more. The track is pulled from the band’s incoming second album, Artifice Dissolves, nearing release on 20 Buck Spin.
With Artifice Dissolves, Montreal’s DISSIMULATOR accelerates beyond the formidable sonic coordinates established by their Lower Form Resistance debut and plunges headlong into a future world where technological hegemony and catastrophic entropy exist in perfect equilibrium. Their jagged sci-fi death/thrash has evolved into an ever more labyrinthine construct, fusing serrated riff matrices and volatile rhythmic architecture into an algorithm-obliterating neural hack.
Artifice Dissolves sees DISSIMULATOR – drummer Phillipe Boucher, bassist Antoine Daigneault, and guitarist/vocalist Claude Leduc – propelling itself like an untethered artificial consciousness recursively rewriting its own code, with each movement revealing another phantasmagorical dimension within the band’s bionic mythology. Razor-wire guitar lines, alien yet familiar, whiplash and intersect at impossible angles whilst the rhythm section drives songs like “Alloyed” and “Neon Metropolis” through perpetual states of intensifying velocity, collapse, and reassembly, creating a surging sense of momentum undeterred by its relentless intricacy.
An awe-inspiring convergence of futuristic world-building and unrestrained, unapologetic technical aggression, Artifice Dissolves is a cyborg hallucination of a civilization wasting away in the sunless gutters of its autonomous megacities, the warped fever dreams of an omniscient God-machine, and the malignant side-effects of its cybernetic enhancements. And beneath the album’s dazzling precision and violent thrust, DISSIMULATOR maintains a timeless human striving for order and transcendence beyond the technological.
The drums on Artifice Dissolves were recorded by Xavier Berthiaume at Productions Tehom. The bulk of the audio, including additional vocals on several tracks by Laurent Bellemare, was recorded by the band, then reamped, mixed, and mastered by Hugues Deslauriers at Roarrrsoundsstudio. The album is completed with artwork by Noah Cutter Meihoff (Ghost, Imperial Triumphant), layout by Audrey Pasquini / Bangs! Studio, and photography by Kristel Boucher. Any fan of Obliveon, Sadus, Voivod, Cryptic Shift, Miscreance, Vektor, Watchtower, Atheist, Hexx, Decapitated, Meshuggah, and Cynic should investigate DISSIMULATOR.
Claude Leduc writes of the new single, “Inspired by reveries borne of nighttime strolls in Montreal, ‘Neon Metropolis’ depicts a flaneur meandering through an autonomous megacity. A hymn-like chorus underscores the mood of alienated despair while the song’s urgent cadence mimics human and machine bustling to the restless beat of the cybernetic hive. This city is not made for human life; it is without community; without history; without finality. Those who adapt see themselves reduced to mere utility, while the rest are condemned to haunt the shadows of the system’s forgotten crevices. It is the untenable result of life being in service to ever greater technological efficiency and development, rather than directing technical knowledge for the purposes of life.”
Listen to DISSIMULATOR’s penetrating “Neon Metropolis” now on Bandcamp HERE and YouTube HERE.
Artifice Dissolves will arrive on LP, CD, and digital platforms on October 2nd. Preorder this elite auditory weaponry at the 20 Buck Spin webshop HERE and Bandcamp HERE.
DISSIMULATOR:
Phillipe Boucher – drums
Claude Leduc – guitar, vocals
Antoine Daigneault – bass
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The post DISSIMULATOR: “Neon Metropolis” From Montreal Sci-Fi Death/Thrash Band With Chthe’ilist, Atramentus Members Now Streaming; Artifice Dissolves LP Nears October 2nd Release On 20 Buck Spin first appeared on Earsplit Compound.