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Sectioned - Annihilated review




Bandcamp music player
Reviewer:
8.3

14 users:
7.14
Band: Sectioned
Album: Annihilated
Release date: April 2018


01. Annihilated
02. Beautiful Struggle
03. Starved Lives
04. Synchronicity
05. Betrayer
06. Toothgrinder
07. Eigengrau
08. Bête Noire
09. Victorious, Neverending
10. Release
11. Portrait
12. Life's True Beauty
13. Through The Trees

All is violent, nothing is bright.

There was a big gap in mathcore when The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza disbanded and an even bigger one when The Dillinger Escape Plan did. Sectioned might not have enough words in their less pretentious name, but their music certainly does its job to fill the void left. The Scottish outfit have just come out of their hiatus with a new vocalist and a fresh need to knock some teeth. If you're unfamiliar with Sectioned's previous EPs, you might be familiar with the band Frontierer. Pedram Valiani is the mastermind behind both Frontierer and Sectioned, so there's that.

Let's get "abrasive", "controlled chaos", and "vitriol" out of the way. You know it's mathcore. You don't need me to tell you that's it's a slab of aggression. You need me to tell you if it's a good slab of aggression. So once I've picked the broken pieces of myself off the floor, I'll tell you that even though Annihilated sounds a lot of times like a band trying to sound as noisy and abrasive as possible in weird time sigs, they also took notice of having to sound engaging while doing so. I'm not gonna go deep into the performance, but new vocalist Jamie Christ might need a bit of variety; for what it's worth, though, his frantic performance is significant to the album's impact.

A lot of the album is wild and violent, but thankfully Sectioned do know to introduce bits and pieces of experimentation as well as moments to breathe. It might sound like a fun idea to have a record that is uncompromisingly always at top intensity, but that reduces the impact of each individual punch. Sectioned know this, so there are always transitions, always unexpected moments, always room to wonder what exactly you're experiencing. The more experimental moments come more in terms of effects added like the channel panning in songs like "Life's True Beauty" or in terms of electronic meanderings like the IDM outro of "Portrait" or "Starved Lives". Annihilated pulls some brakes once in a while, even though the atmosphere never settles down to calm until the very last moment, when, instead of the usual guitar feedback song transition, we get a piano.

Annihilated feels truly revitalizing to a genre that needed just that. Controlled chaos has been done before, but Sectioned are way too creative with their electronic twists and effects to be lumped in with the "done before" crowd. Get annihilated.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 9





Written on 25.06.2018 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out.


Comments

Comments: 11   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 148 users
25.06.2018 - 01:06
Mercurial

Didn't actually know that this band had links with Frontierer. That name has been popping up a lot in gigs and fests near me so will have to have a look at them. (There's a Bandcamp linking woe here too btw).
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25.06.2018 - 01:37
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Mercurial on 25.06.2018 at 01:06

Didn't actually know that this band had links with Frontierer. That name has been pooping up a lot in gigs and fests near me so will have to have a look at them. (There's a Bandcamp linking woe here too btw).

A new Frontierer is coming soon as well, it seems
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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25.06.2018 - 11:13
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Hah, was thinking about reviewing this one along with Frontierer but you certainly did a much better job haha. I just fucking love these guys along with Frontierer. It's hard to talk about them without overusing the words chaos or aggressive but you just can't emphasize enough how fucking HEAVY this is in comparison to most things. Great review!
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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26.06.2018 - 00:18
Rating: 8
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
The reference...?
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26.06.2018 - 12:46
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Summyroy01 on 26.06.2018 at 11:12

Very nice!

Thank you, mr bot
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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26.06.2018 - 20:46
Rating: 8
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
"All is violent, nothing is bright."

Explain please.
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26.06.2018 - 20:51
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by LeKiwi on 26.06.2018 at 20:46

"All is violent, nothing is bright."

Explain please.

It's just a reference to the title of God Is An Astronaut's most famous release, All Is Violent, All Is Bright.

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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
26.06.2018 - 20:57
Rating: 8
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by RaduP on 26.06.2018 at 20:51

It's just a reference to the title of God Is An Astronaut's most famous release, All Is Violent, All Is Bright.

I know, that's why I'm asking So what's the intent of the reference? I got excited when I saw that...maybe a more melancholic version of that album's sound...
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26.06.2018 - 21:03
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by LeKiwi on 26.06.2018 at 20:57

Written by RaduP on 26.06.2018 at 20:51

It's just a reference to the title of God Is An Astronaut's most famous release, All Is Violent, All Is Bright.

I know, that's why I'm asking So what's the intent of the reference? I got excited when I saw that...maybe a more melancholic version of that album's sound...

I was thinking of saving that up for another album that fit the reference better, but it just felt right
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
26.06.2018 - 21:10
Rating: 8
LeKiwi
High Fist Prog
Written by RaduP on 26.06.2018 at 21:03

I was thinking of saving that up for another album that fit the reference better, but it just felt right

Interesting; fair enough. Also, sweet signature. I think you meant "or" rather than "of" though.
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26.06.2018 - 21:17
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by LeKiwi on 26.06.2018 at 21:10

Written by RaduP on 26.06.2018 at 21:03

I was thinking of saving that up for another album that fit the reference better, but it just felt right

Interesting; fair enough. Also, sweet signature. I think you meant "or" rather than "of" though.

How did I not notice until now?
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...

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