ARTIFICIAL BRAIN

Even the dimmest of bulbs must have noticed by now that death metal's great renaissance is singularly unlikely to end any time soon. The ongoing tsunami of great new bands and revitalized old-school legends has reinvigorated the scene to such a degree that every week seems to bring another new and potentially revelatory contribution to the cause. 2026 has been a particularly fruitful year for the genre, and the rush of high-quality albums is continuing into the winter months. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN have been among death metal connoisseur's most reliable picks since they first emerged with their "Butchering Cosmic Giants" EP back in 2013, and the Americans' subsequent slew of acclaimed records has turned them into one of the most revered underground bands on the planet. Four years on from their self-titled third album, "Antillia" is exactly the abominable display of total confidence that fans will be expecting, but also a notable step in a slightly more accessible direction.

As has long been the case with this band, "Antillia" makes it plain that the usual descriptors of death and black metal are woefully inadequate. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN are operating on such a unique and eccentric plane that these new songs seem to exist outside of all the usual reference points. Ostensibly a death metal band with a perverse and progressive penchant for the obscure and dissonant trappings of black metal, they have become much more than that, and these dizzying 43 minutes celebrate that fact with blissful disregard for convention. Somewhere between the avant-garde grandeur of ULCERATE, the vexed, outsider extremity of KRALLICE, and the prog-minded madness of GIGAN, ARTIFICIAL BRAIN are making music that both confounds expectation and delivers a robust and reassuring dose of endlessly classy (but routinely unfamiliar) extreme metal. More concise and impactful than previous albums, "Antillia" condenses the avant-garde excesses of the band's sound into a more approachable format, as showcased on the opening "The Wandering Star Prion", which veers from discordant and enigmatic to ruthless and brutal, and back again. Fans of BLOOD INCANTATION's intuitive, old-school ingenuity will find plenty to love in the churning riffs, scattershot percussive jolts and jabs, and the haunting, quasi-ambient embellishments that make each song as distinct as the band's wayward, angular logo. But comparisons to other bands are superficial and transitory: ARTIFICIAL BRAIN have constructed their own, deeply peculiar world of elevated death metal, and every song adds more layers to its disorientating charms.

At times, "Antillia" is startling in its directness. "Obsidian Agents" barely scrapes three minutes, but within its furious structure there are ideas in abundance, and multiple riffs that arguably should not be blended with this much seamless elegance. As it hurtles towards its jarring climax, with frontman Mike Paparo's vocals bubbling and festering over searing guitar work, its power is viscerally monumental. In contrast, "Deciphering the Anachronistic Tongues of the Relic Satellites" is a more expansive and bewildering tapestry of frenzied aggro and abstruse dynamics, but each oddball detour somehow seems to keep the runaway train securely on its tracks. Greatly aided by a pristine, crystal-clear production that seldom bows to a need for obscurity, "Antillia" lays bare all its deranged secrets and makes the insanity seem bizarrely palatable. It reaches an apex of weirdness and wonder on the closing title track. Six-and-a-half minutes of reality-bending riffs and tumultuous transitions, it perfectly encapsulates this album's wild spirit, while dropping tantalizing hints about where ARTIFICIAL BRAIN might be going on their next adventure. This is still death metal, without question, but with strange, inspirational depths that have only just begun to reveal themselves to us wide-eyed and gawping spectators.