Origin - Antithesis (2008)

The phrase "biblically accurate angel" makes NO sense!

The cover art displays some sort of mechanical, vaguely reptilian thing with sharp teeth, tentacles and a strange green aura around it. In space. Point is, I can't tell what exactly I'm looking at. When I heard the pseudo-melodic sweep around 1:16 on the opener "The Aftermath", it felt majestic, awe-inspiring, even heavenly. Depending on your attitude towards modern tech death, you'd probably hype Origin as face-melting or dismiss it as robotic; I doubt you'd describe the band as having emotion, let alone call them majestic or heavenly. Realizing that disconnect and looking at the album cover, I couldn't help but make the association with "biblically accurate" angels. The ones wrapped in six wings so that their fiery bodies don't burn everything around, or the other ones made of crossed rings covered in eyeballs - those angels. However, "biblically accurate" makes no sense, because boring dudes with wings are also described in the Bible. But once you've heard the phrase, you think of the other, freakier angels. I made that association because blistering fast, brutal, mechanical music featuring most types of arpeggios and blastbeats is not a likely place to find anything "divine".

Now, Origin doesn't write avant-garde music, and the comparison to eldritch entities probably gives wrong expectations. The listening difficulty is more about the sheer speed rather than overt dissonance, although yes, there are dissonant chords, as there were on previous albums. The most common type of riff you will hear throughout is divided into groups of four sixteenth notes (one beat) over two strings, with one high and three low notes. Because of the fast tempos, only the high notes stand out, giving the illusion that fewer notes are being played, unless you listen closely. The high note marks either the start or end of a beat, giving riffs a sense of pulse. The low picks, which normally serve as pedal notes, aren't uniform in pitch but in a trill pattern, which makes every sound tense and restless. The pattern varies, as sometimes the upper notes skip a beat, sometimes a beat has two of them, but to me, this is the definitive sound of "Antithesis" - the first riffs on "The Aftermath" and "Finite" are textbook examples. In a way, the guitar becomes a percussive instrument, and during sections with the riff pattern described above, it's like the whole band plays heavy percussive music while the tonality is there to add color. Only solos, sweep heavy riffs and more basic tremolo based riffs have somewhat traditional melodies.

The production is surprisingly dynamic as far as tech death goes. I compare it not just to similar bands at that time, such as Nile, Hour of Penance or Beneath the Massacre, but also to Origin's previous albums. "Antithesis" doesn't have as much of a guitar plus blastbeat rumble, which leaves space for the bass's higher notes to shine or hear more nuance in the drums. Snares switch between eighth and sixteenth notes on a whim, while the current cymbal of choice plays an independent rhythm. The drums alternate between mechanical and really fluid, almost messy. Several songs, most notably "Ubiquitous" and the title track, have mid-paced sections (which are "slow" in the context of the album), where the guitar takes on a more chordal approach, while the drums switch to double bass with sparse snare. The average track is longer (even excluding the 9-minute-long closer) and more dynamic than the ones on older albums. "Wrath of Vishnu" and the title track use more exotic scales, as opposed to chromatic - this riffing style would become more common on later albums. The more dynamic songwriting and less cluttered production mean that "Antithesis" is "lighter" than its predecessors in the sense that some tanks are lighter than others... but a tank is still a tank, and it will run you over.

While the riffage on "Informis..." and "Echoes..." varied between aggressive, dark/ominous and emotionally ambiguous, "Antithesis" made me feel... positive emotions? Not happy, more triumphant or epic - like the initial sweeps at 1:16 on "The Aftermath", the solo on the same song, the entirety of "Algorithm", most of "Wrath of Vishnu". You might dismiss it all as blasturbation. This music is robotic, defined more by pulse and speed than melody, which is why I don't assume Origin successfully communicated the emotion they wanted to me. The percussive nature of "Antithesis" and most of the band's discography is too abstract to effectively communicate anything. But I did feel something. I'll never use "emotionless" as a genuine criticism, because music itself doesn't have emotion, the listeners do. Musicians are listeners too, with the difference that they start backwards, with a vibe or aesthetic first. Then they mold their music (while listening to it!) until they can project their interpretation onto it. If the audience has the same interpretation, then communication through music was successful. However, there's a narrow set of tonal, rhythmic and timbral qualities a piece can have while still being able to convey emotion (mostly) universally. I can enjoy that type of music, but it's rare. Detached and emotionally ambiguous sounds resonate more with me, even if I don't necessarily connect with the artist. As someone with creative hobbies, I prefer to convey meaning and emotion through essayistic writing and leave the ambiguity for my music.