Archspire - Too Fast To Die - review
Archspire - Too Fast To Die - review
Tracklist
01. Liminal Cypher02. Red Goliath
03. Carrion Ladder
04. Anomalous Descent
05. The Vessel
06. Limb Of Leviticus
07. Deadbolt The Backward
08. Too Fast To Die
A review by
ScreamingSteelUS March 29, 2026
Then again, perhaps in a way it does - we're in a realm where we can talk about how style is substance without being laughed out of the conservatory, and there are not too many bands I would place alongside Archspire in terms of vulgar displays of power. They've taken the ultra-polished, super modern-sounding assembly line of finger exercises that is contemporary tech death and turned it into a distinct personal identity, neither soulless nor sterile, as the popular critiques go, but syrupy and silky. They have actually become so extreme as to be incredibly accessible: at first crush, they're a hailstorm of hide-tenderizing notation, but once you're fully under, they're smoother than a baby's criminal record. You can't find the seams, only perfectly manicured solo runs tagging in and out.
This is a style, or maybe a texture, that Archspire crystallized on Relentless Mutation, then polished into a Juno Award-winning sensation on Bleed The Future, and it's precisely what they're doing again on Too Fast To Die. The singles left no doubt: "Carrion Ladder" opens with such a quick flow of growling that it's downright ludicrous, similar to "Calamus Will Animate" from Relentless Mutation yet somehow fast even for Archspire. "Red Goliath" proves that New Spencer (Moore) can blast like Old Spencer (Prewett) - somehow there are two guys out there who can drum as fast as a rotary cannon, and they're both named Spencer. Go figure. The now-recognizable elements of Archspire's writing persist: lots of breaks with quiet, reverberant guitar-plucking interrupted by explosions of merciless pelting; bright, legato guitar leads played behind the frantic acceleration of the vocals and rhythm section for an unorthodox insistence on melody; Oli's absurdly articulate rap-flavored growls constantly heightening the impression that this is regular tech death played at 1.5x speed. Archspire know what they're good at now, and they've got plenty of other ways they can apply it.
This is the band's third time working with producer Dave Otero, who might be recognized as facilitating the cleanliness and clarity of this string of albums if we examined some of his other recent credits: Allegaeon, Cattle Decapitation, Inferi, Vale Of Pnath, and Fallujah have all received similar and successful treatments, and that's a resume that should make perfect sense to anyone familiar with this sector of extreme metal. Archspire might be the one band that has derived the most from his aegis, however: even though so much of their sound is maximalist overstimulation played as fast as physically possible, and although you can identify certain reoccurring techniques or structures within their songs, they are far from repetitive. They have a surprising capacity to write attention-grabbing melodies and work their immense technicality into a musical thrill ride, changing up the flow of each song enough times to maintain energy and working hard to preserve memorability and personality within each suite of shredding. Techy as they are, they're also, in their own way, melodeath.
Too Fast To Die might just be my favorite of these three (and I'll continue to compare these newest three to each other - All Shall Align and The Lucid Collective are very good albums in their own right, but not quite as artistically mature), and I think it's down to the ways in which they're starting to tweak this incredibly tight techy sound of theirs. "Limb Of Leviticus" takes those bright guitar leads and shapes them into an epic build that gives a song a Fallujah-like atmospheric quality, and the low-volume portions of this song and opener "Liminal Cypher" feel more protracted than usual: it's 30 whole seconds before Archspire violently punt their listeners into the stratosphere again. "Anomalous Descent" brings out some of the deathcore that sometimes converges on this alt-neon super-tech death, punching in gang vocals and near-brees over some fun tough-guy chugs in a (relatively) moderate tempo. One of my favorite songs on the album is “The Vessel”, which has some particularly flavorful tremolo-picked melodies that become reminiscent of Aephanemer for how high-pitched and grandiose they are; this song is probably the apex of Archspire’s melodic writing, achieving a brightness and symphonic quality I wouldn’t have guessed they could build towards. It’s hard to pick a favorite (“The Vessel” and “Limb Of Leviticus” certainly make great cases and there are no dull moments), but it might be “Red Goliath”, which feels like a perfect encapsulation of the Archspire sound but with an even denser instrumental presence and a more intense feeling, like what “Drone Corpse Aviator” was for Bleed The Future.
Too Fast To Die isn’t merely faster, it’s also bigger than ever before: there are more layers, some more dashes of style, a few avenues that I find very intriguing. I love hearing Archspire grow grander, because it shows that there is still room to improve even if they are, in fact, the fastest band in the world.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 29.03.2026 by
Written on 29.03.2026 by
Dull Music for Dull People Comments
Comments:
17
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278 users
| Posts: 6698 |
Posts: 6698
There's a silly but semi-meaningful distinction between "melodic death metal" and "melodeath": if you say "melodic death metal", that probably conjures up Carcass, In Flames, Nightfall, maybe something more left-field like Chapel Of Disease, i.e. death metal that has some trad-heavy guitar licks or some punky hooks, but if you start talking about "melodeath", then I know you mean Amon Amarth, Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, that sort of Finlandcore x Nuclear Blast-brand power-metal-with-growls death. In the same way, I think I would be understood if I assigned importance to distinguishing "technical death metal" (Atheist, Gorguts, Quo Vadis) from "tech death" (Necrophagist, Rings Of Saturn, Beyond Creation). By the laws of this terminology, Archspire is tekdef.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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Posts: 2790 Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 29.03.2026 at 08:09 ...And I would equally well exactly understand what you are talking about if you cut it a bit and omit that last word 'death' there at all.
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Posts: 2790 Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 29.03.2026 at 08:09 I guess I've always bridged me this distinction with: There is melodic death metal and there is melodramatic (death) metal. 
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Posts: 1823
I'm glad you acknowledged that Oli's vocals are very rap-inspired. I was wondering why the way those vocals sounded familiar but then I read that Oli was inspired by the chopper style of rap used by guys like Tech N9ne and Twista, and now I definitely hear the similarities.
---- Need a break from headbanging? Restore your street cred by visiting my hip-hop list! Tha Swagnum Opus: A Selection Of Hip-Hop For The Curious Metalhead
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Posts: 6698 Written by Redel on 29.03.2026 at 10:44 Yeah, I suppose we could also define the difference as being simply in what the "melo" denotes (e.g. that joke about how it ought to be spelled "mellowdeath").
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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Posts: 6698 Written by A Real Mönkey on 29.03.2026 at 15:22 So much so that I have barely listened to Tech N9ne in my life and yet he was all I could think about during some segments. I was watching the lyric video for "Limb of Leviticus" last night and thinking, "Why on earth did these guys bother to do a lyric video at all?" (It was pretty cool, though.)
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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Posts: 1823 Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 29.03.2026 at 18:13 I love me some Tech. He was one of the first guys that got me into rap. AWOO AWOO AWOO
---- Need a break from headbanging? Restore your street cred by visiting my hip-hop list! Tha Swagnum Opus: A Selection Of Hip-Hop For The Curious Metalhead
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Posts: 9575
I know I won't like this album, but I certainly like this review!
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Posts: 107  |
Posts: 107
Listened to three singles. Dunno - not my cup, they all were identical.
---- Metalhead since 1987
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Posts: 474  |
Posts: 474
Big fan of the band and of this very well-written review, I rarely read reviews here so was a bit surprised at how much I was impressed by the quality of wordsmithing
---- 2025 Death Metal
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Posts: 1088  |
Posts: 1088
The only thing i disagree with in your review is the 8 for production. To me this is the worst mix they ever had. As is quite common nowadays, the snare does some of the least interesting parts yet is mixed far too high, and the strings are mostly bottom end, would help both for clarity and impact if there were more guitar treble
---- http://metalstormmusicianscorner.bandcamp.com Written by Warman on 07.11.2007 at 22:39
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Posts: 4331 Written by Jaro on 31.03.2026 at 23:37 You've come to the right reviewer, then. Few people I know could even remotely hold a candle to SSUS' combination of analytical thinking and English skills.
---- 
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 Posts: 1534 |
Posts: 1534
A truly entertaining review for a very good album! Also, I humbly hope that if you throw your Blink 182 CDs out of the car window, you won't mind if I pick them up. To throw them further.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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| Posts: 6698 |
Posts: 6698
You all are very kind. I'm glad you enjoyed the review. I've done very little listening to new releases from this year so far, but I wouldn't be surprised if this persisted as one of my favorites to the end of the year.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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Posts: 4331
I'll happily catch all your Blink 182 CDs and listen to them. Love that band.
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Posts: 1534 Written by corrupt on 04.04.2026 at 09:34 I was planning to write exactly this but decided to make a silly joke instead. Blink-182 have so many awesome tunes.
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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