Band:	The Scalar Process
Album:	Coagulative Matter
Style:	Progressive death metal, Technical death metal
Release date:	February 19, 2021
Guest review by:	yoless2

01. Elevation
02. Cosmic Flow
03. Ink Shadow
04. Celestial Existence
05. Mirror Cognition
06. Poisoned Fruit
07. Azimuth
08. Beyond The Veil Of Consciousness
09. Ouroboros
10. Coagulative Matter
11. Somnambulation

With the overwhelming amount of technical metal bands, it can be quite challenging to find something striking. A considerable public stands for speed, others prefer complexity and chaos. While most of the bands within technical metal blast us with a neverending parade of brutality, The Scalar Process understands that what makes this album very promising is a precise dose of the previous elements: not lacking brutality or emotion, but also not overexploiting too much its heaviness. This is also understood in the vocals, which stand in the back when the instrumentality does its magic and drives us to wander the stars waiting for a deserved end.

From the first tracks, you can immediately listen to the strong influence of The Zenith Passage, Necrophagist, The Faceless, and Beyond Creation. With heavily palm-muted bridges, aggressive riffs, a spacey outro, and beautiful lead solos, The Scalar Process fully introduces Coagulative Matter with "Cosmic Flow". What follows is "Ink Shadows", which explores more the melodic side of the band, and a very satisfying, sudden, and moving solo. The mysterious spacy mid-section almost shapes into black metal. The upcoming songs have very catchy riffs that drill within your skull. Occasionally some clean sections open up with the synthesizers, exploring outer space in a very chilling and quiet way, just to magnificently burst towards the end.

"Poisoned Fruit", the best song in terms of vocal rhythm and style, shapes something beyond aggressiveness: it's probably the most energetic and diverse track. The band plays around the intro riff in different styles; the atmosphere built around the chorus and the lead guitars are subtle and more precise, which makes this track the most satisfying of the album.

Most of the tracks follow the same formula: blasting riffs with a diverse range of vocal styles ("Poisoned Fruit" is the best track in terms of vocals). From time to time the band introduces new elements to the compositions, such as synthesizer sequencers, angelical choruses, or synth melodies to accompany passages. Also, some tracks are very catchy, melodic, and dynamic. The best example of this is "Beyond The Veil Of Consciousness" (not to mention the very powerful outro run by Opeth-ish chord progressions). Finally, there is "Coagulative Matter", a track that stigmatizes the band's sound; it feels like it needed more cohesion, since the long atmospheric passages that go back to the initial riffs feel kind of overwhelming and disorienting. The song is unnecessarily 11 minutes long. Probably another song from the track would work better as the album's title track (such as "Poisoned Fruit" or "Azimuth").

The Scalar Process leaves something clear: they surely sound powerful, technical, and aggressively progressive, but their main focus is the dark ambience that dances alongside nebulae, charming our soul to contemplate unimaginable landscapes. All things considered, Coagulative Matter is a massive album with a lethally precise dose of ambience, aggression, and breaks: unescapable and overwhelmingly bewitching from beginning to end. Meticulously crafted with an outstanding outcome: since the moment you see the artwork, you feel the call of it. Let's hope these guys can continue evolving their sound to more creative pieces!