As a kid, I commonly had nightmares about alien beings arriving on earth, peering through my windows at night as they study or make plans for something more sinister. It didn’t help I’d sneak UFO documentaries and movies based on aliens, almost as if my fears were keeping my imagination alive and focused on things that chilled my blood.

Canadian thrash/death trio Dissimulator appear to have visions of the same kind, as their bashing and cosmic debut “Lower Form Resistance” feels like touching the face of something not of this planet. The band member themselves—vocalist/guitarist Claude Leduc, bassist Antoine Daigneault, drummer Philippe Boucher—have plied their trade in other mind-tangling beasts including Chthe’ilist, Atramentus, Beyond Creation, and Incandescence, but what they do on this album is from a different world altogether. It’s a mauler of a record, one that pulsates with rubbery weirdness and madness that claims your imagination and injects it with sinister power.

“Neural Hack” begins properly thrashy, the bass stomping as speedy riffs take over, meaty howls sending seismic jolts down your spine. The playing intensifies, feeling beastly and moody, ending with zany ferocity. “Warped” is fast and trudging, the guitars feeling wiry, the vocals mashing with monstrous power. The tempo slows a bit but remains impossibly heavy, mauling and adding a strange alien effect that becomes a theme on this record, blistering until ending abruptly. “Outer Phase” brings flexible riffs and a tricky tempo, the growls corroding as the guitars spiral into the earth. The vibe feels strange, energies arriving from deep in the cosmos, the growls crushing as the leads zap. The playing goes soaring into the stars, warping and adding fiery emotion, ending with mechanical heat.

“Automoil & Robotoil” opens with the drums pacing, the playing chugging, and more extraterrestrial weirdness over the singing. The leads glow as clean warbling chills bones, crushing and smashing, the bass recoiling, charging and ripping to completion.   “Cybermorphism/Mainframe” is clean and hazy at first, icy drips pelting off metal, the playing slowly heating as things get more menacing. Punishing thrashiness becomes more intense, weird cosmic winds blow stardust into your eyes, and then the power reengages, the guitars igniting. Disarming auras spin in the air, blistering through mangling thrashing, beating your bones into dust. “Hyperline Underflow” unloads fiery guitars, crushing growls, and the leads exploding across the sky. A blistering breakdown causes bruising, the guitars glow and chug, and the final moments bask in starlight. The closing title track erupts with guitars and progressive grit, not unlike countrymates Voivod. The playing is fantastical and furious, zapping and trudging, clean singing scorching flesh, fluid wonders taking off and jolting your imagination to accept possibilities never considered before.

Dissimulator might be revisiting the cosmic thrash that was born four decades ago, but they do so in such an imaginative and fresh manner that it puts a new edge and sharpness onto the sound, making it their own. “Lower Form Resistance” also is an album that sounds great first time around, but as you revisit, new alien pockets reveal themselves and pull you in alternative directions. This is a satisfyingly crunchy debut from a band whose adventures into the deepest parts of the universe is just starting.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/dissimulatorofficial

To buy the album, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/dissimulator

For more on the label, go here: https://www.20buckspin.com/