Written by Zax
- Mother Of All – Age Of The Solipsist
- Progressive Death Metal from Denmark
- Releases June 11th, 2021
via Black Lion Records - 8.2/10
This is one of the most interesting death metal records I’ve heard in a while, and it comes out on April 23rd! Before I dive into the sound, let’s dig into this wild lineup first. Technically, Mother Of All is a solo project, with Martin Haumanm at its helm. Martin Haumaan is a Danish man who has spent the majority of his career drumming, most notably playing live drums for Afsky and Myrkur, he flexes his vocals with this project along with his drumming! For this record he’s recruited the help of guitarist Frederick Jensen, and on bass, he has none other than Steve DiGiorgio, legendary Death and Testament bassist.
So what does this come out to? Well, a very strange mixture, really. It can be summed up as a thrash-tinged slice of progressive death metal, but It’s not really prog in the traditional sense. It’s not extravagant and theatrical, but there’s a ton going on Instrumentally for listeners to dissect, by that measure and just the fact that it sounds so different from a lot of death metal out there, I consider it to be prog.
The album starts with an acoustic flourish that leads into a fuck load of intensity. It probably goes without saying that the bass lines are absolutely stellar. Steve lays down some robust, rumbling bass lines that stand out very prominently in the mix. Our main man Martin blows it out of the water with his drumming, the fills are on point! He makes such good use of his kit, there were a couple of moments where his drumming drew a “goddamn!” from me while listening. He also works some odd song structures in there that threw me for a loop. His vocals are not to be ignored either. His screams are very commanding and thrashy, lyrics are pretty easy to make out as well. Then, of course, you have to give it up for those riffs, very solid, kickass guitar performance here.
The mixing and.production on this album might just be the most unique thing about it. It’s layered in a way that everything jumps right out at you, but it also sounds like it’s being played live right in front of me. It’s impressive stuff. Turns out, it was produced by ex-Necrophagist and ex-Obscura drummer Hannes Grossmann! How much power can be packed into one project?
Oh, and did I mention that they manage all of this in under 30 minutes? How crazy is that! It’s a tight, dynamic listen. It packs a big punch, you aren’t going to want to miss it!
8.2/10
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