A long-lost relic from the early 2000s in Quebec, Canada, the debut album from Atheretic, Adhesion, Aversion... still grabs me and takes me to a dark place even today, 20 years or so after first hearing it.

After a short intro filled with buzzing, this album grabs you by the throat right away. This really is total chaos. The tempos are always changing, from somewhat groovy and even kind of weird and jazzy, to an all-out blasting assault. This album never really stays in the same place for long. The songs have this tendency to bring you from place to place like you're on a roller coaster. A good example of this is on the song "Disciples Enslaved by Faith." Multiple times a section starts off slower and then kind of gradually speeds up into a hyper-blasting frenzy. It really feels like the song is telling you to buckle your seatbelt because shit's about to go fucking crazy. In general, this album constantly feels like it's just about to go off the rails, but manages to just keep it together.

I really enjoy the sound of this record. Every instrument moves together, with nothing really overpowering anything else. The drums pound hard and are all over the place in such a precise fashion. The bass follows the drums, but breaks out with its own leads in spots. The guitars fly from place to place and really kind of lead the overall insanity.

Vocalist Wayne McGrath is one of the forgotten kings of death metal singing. There's a killer amount of variety going on here. His base vocal is a low guttural grunting style, but then he throws in more mid-range stuff and some shouting-style vocals. The odd super high shriek shows up as well. It really adds to the overall chaotic nature of the sound.

Quebec has a long history of producing some of the absolute best when it comes to technical and/or progressive death metal outfits. We all know the legends like Cryptopsy and Gorguts, as well as newer bands like Beyond Creation. Atheretic, although short-lived with only two full-length releases over a few years of existence, deserve to be talked about in the same conversations as the aforementioned bands. There are few bands coming out of Canada today, perhaps the world, who sound as insane to the ears, as well as passionate, as a band like Atheretic. Go out of your way to hear Adhesion, Aversion... It truly is a forgotten gem within the history of death metal.