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I am often skeptical of Tech Death, but when it hits me right I like it so much that I am always looking for new good stuff. Cryptic Shift have been around for over a decade, but this is, so far, their only album, released in 2020 just as the world was going to shit.

This is Tech Death that remembers to be metal, not trying to be jazz, and that's a big mark in its favor. This has interludes and some more trippy instrumental parts, but when it gets down to it, it thrashes pretty hard. Yes, this goes for the kind of lurching, off-time rhythms that are ubiquitous in the subgenre, but I find the riffing here compelling, and even if the songs wander a bit (especially the 25-minute opener "Moonbelt Immolator"), they keep coming back to interesting stuff. Not solid gold, but it kept me interested.