EP Review: Sublation – “On the Advancement of Decay” (Technical Death Metal)

Written by Kep

It’s been nearly fifteen months since Philly-based technical death metal duo Sublation released their debut full-length album, which I very much enjoyed. Now after several months of teasing, they’re back with a follow-up EP—never mind that it’s actually a minute longer than the LP—and a chance to cement their status as one of the most notable up-and-coming bands on the scene. And with a strong conceptual base and an ambitious semi-narrative blueprint, On the Advancement of Decay seems well-suited to the task. 

The band’s strongest characteristic on the aforementioned debut album, aside from generally excellent songwriting, was the ability to deftly incorporate a plethora of influences and stylistic variety into their technical death metal framework. This EP is basically Doubling Down on Our Most Impressive Abilities: The Album, because the breadth of sounds covered is damn well breathtaking. It’s a purposeful and carefully thought-out part of the plan, which I’ll get into momentarily, but concept aside, there are few bands that can go from speedy Obscura-esque techdeath to full-on black metal to ambient all on the same release and make it seem organic. And yet organic is precisely how On the Advancement of Decay feels from start to finish. 

The album’s concept is right there in the title: this is a collection of songs about decay. Sublation isn’t happy with just tying the lyrics together, though; they’ve illustrated the idea of decay in the progression of the music itself on multiple levels. First there’s the tempo: the tracks steadily decrease in BPM as the album progresses, beginning with the lively techdeath energy of lead single “Congenital Putrescence”, continuing through to the deliberate death metal speed of midpoint “Idiopathic”, and eventually arriving at the more expansive black metal sounds of “This Little Death” and the harsh ambient meditation of closer “We were never meant to live this long”.  Similarly, there’s a clear decrease in overall activity within the songs as well, as the vigorous melodic fretboard acrobatics of guitarist/bassist Max Svalgard give way to fragmented bits of melody and chunkier brutality, and those eventually decay away into atmospheric long line tremolo-picking. There’s a very clear transformation that transpires; each song mutates a bit further, so that each of the EP’s seven tracks can almost be described as a different subgenre. 

That’s not even remotely an exaggeration, either. “Congenital Putrescence” is a true melodic techdeath banger in the vein of bands like Equipoise, riffs in perpetual agile motion, Danny Piselli’s drums flying and blasting wildly beneath, complete with a vintage Svalgard solo that weaves, shreds, and sings in equal measure. “Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It” carries a good dose of that technical flair but reads a little more meathead, a bit less agile and more bullish aggression (extremely rad shreddy harmony section in middle aside). “Eclipse Awe” takes a more melodeath tack, featuring a simple, mournful main riff that will live vividly in your ear’s memory after the album has ended. Second single “Idiopathic” is next, a damn bruiser with punchy rhythms and notably less melody, and it’s followed by “Born Out of a Whim”, the blackened tremolos and drawn out lines of which begin the final devolution toward blurry black metal texture. That comes to fruition in “This Little Death”, a nihilistic black metal track that carries palpable hopelessness and frustration in its distorted bones. The metallic, slow waving wall of guitar sound of “We were never meant to live this long” holds the final eight minutes of the runtime in agonizingly meditative stasis. 

The cohesiveness of this narrative is downright remarkable. If you take two songs at random it still feels like they belong together, which is about as high of a compliment as I can give to a project like this. Part of this is due to the common element of Piselli’s outstanding work behind the kit: he’s adept at blending stylistic patterns into others, so he can use something like a straightforward blast beat in different contexts by juxtaposing it smoothly with style-specific patterns. For his sizable part, Svalgard worked common melodic fragments into each song, which makes them feel intrinsically related though the references aren’t particularly overt. His full-throated roar is also a force of continuity, delivering lyrics with power and impact.

Said lyrics are some of the finest you’ll hear this year. Svalgard is an extremely thoughtful and well-read songwriter, and that shines in the themed nature of these words. Each track has its own take on decay—“Congenital Putrescence” is about the physical decay we inherit, “Eclipse Awe” the decay of youthful exuberance, etc.—and many of the words are inspired by writings and quotes on the subject. “Born Out of a Whim”, based on a book called The Festival of Insignificance by Milan Kunder, is particularly memorable: “Truly inconceivable, the horrors of humanity / This icon of disease with her navel-less belly / Can you imagine the crimson rain of rotting flesh? / On this void she makes her bed, giving birth to total death”.  

On the Advancement of Decay’s production is dirtier and a bit flatter than that of The Path to Bedlam—likely a conscious choice, given the subject matter. There’s less clarity, more mud in the mix, and the master is on the quiet side, which suits the last few tracks particularly well given their blackened and ambient leanings, but doesn’t quite do the techier opening tracks justice. This minor complaint raises an interesting question: when creating an album that intentionally changes styles from track to track, should the production evolve to match each style or should it be consistent across the runtime? I don’t have the answer, but it’s a fascinating thing worth debating.

THE BOTTOM LINE

There’s no doubt about it: Sublation’s On the Advancement of Decay is a worthy follow-up to The Path to Bedlam, again proving the duo as a particularly thoughtful and skilled songwriting force. The album’s substance lives up to its prodigious ambitions, and delivers a poignant concept with layers upon layers of musical depth.