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DISSIMULATOR
Lower Form Resistance

20 Buck Spin (2024)
Rating: 8.5/10

20 Buck Spin is becoming one of the hottest labels around when it comes to extreme metal variations. The latest auditory orgasm to join the roster is Montréal, Canada-based act Dissimulator, an absolutely jarring sci-fi death-thrash explosion that harkens back to the late 80s and early 90s with its serrated musicianship.

Featuring members of Beyond Creation, Atramentus and Chthe’ilist, Dissimulator attack with a pulverising velocity that one moment chugs like Anthrax, the next contorts like Voivod and finally twists like a snappy death-thrash gymnast. Strangely, although I love the harsh vocal barks, I would have preferred something more unorthodox, but hey, the voice still grates the brain like an oversized killer cheese grater and sits comfortably over the sniping and cutting instrumentation. Drummer Philippe Boucher works overtime here as a metallic octopus, filling in those jolting grooves with jerking rhythms and epileptic pulses.

Hear a track like ‘Warped’ and become one with the orgy of twists and saw-toothed belligerence. ‘Outer Phase’, even with its quirky shifts, is never far away from Vektor, Mekong Delta and Voivod; slight cosmic pinches while evoking industrialised galactic stations. Even so, the album remains incredibly melodic and crisp as the riffs shift from glinting steely passages to otherworldly fizzes.

‘Cybermorphism / Mainframe’ sports a Cynic-type energy with its angular yet softer twists, the trio briefly dipping into subtlety before again reverting to a barbed, spasming structure. Abrasive thrash chugs operate like great mechanical cogs and conveyor belts. Maybe the cover art prompts me to imagine such mechanics where steam meets steel to a soundtrack of a clanking metropolis.

‘Hyperline Underflow’ streaks like an early 90s Euro tech-thrash album, somehow obscure in its traits. Meanwhile, the closing title cut drifts towards the realms of Watchtower and maybe that’s why I crave a tighter, cleaner and higher vocal sound. However, this is still a superb outing that decades ago would have been a cult yet overlooked opus, but with 20 Buck Spin behind it, Lower Form Resistance is sure to turn heads and shred ears.

Neil Arnold

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