I’ll be super honest here: When I get a promo that’s labeled as technical death metal (add brutal to the description and it’s even worse), I tend to put them aside. It’s not my thing at all, and it takes something weird and alien to really make me pay attention. I eventually get to them, but the ones I present here and kind of sparse.

Hierarchies’ self-titled debut record is one I probably got to sooner than I would due to the early year music glut, and I’m glad I found it because it’s a stunner. And it might not be from this planet. Including members of Dwelling Below, Hallowed Idols, and Acausal Intrusion, the band—vocalist/drummer Jared Moran, guitarist Nicholas Turner, bassist Anthony Wheeler—draws you into its strange miasma, contorting your brain all the way. Over eight tracks and 46 minutes, you’re treated to death metal that feels like it originates from a world away, or maybe another dimension, and it’s done so effectively that it feels like the natural course for these artists. It’s not an easily digestible listen, and it’s perfect that way.

“Entity” opens in strange darkness before the howls bury, and then jerky, techy guitars make your head swim in confusion. The drubbing peels flesh back, the leads again bending time and space, stretching into beastly hell, destroying and trudging, tangling everything in its cords. “Consecrate Phenomenon” has guitars needling, howls pummeling, and everything engulfed in hell, the spiraling melodies making you feel crazed. Shrieks maul as the guitars stretch into oblivion, echoes glazing as the sounds slowly dissipate. “Dimension” unloads, maniacal growls chewing muscle, the death march managing to get even more intense, feeling morbid and unforgiving. Blood bubbles to the surface, the riffs dominating, an eruption taking you under and ending you with spastic convulsions. “Twilight Tradition” begins in eeriness before the band begins to stomp through mud, feeling rubbery and muscular. Guitars race as the atmosphere grows increasingly hazy, heavy disorientation setting in as the final blows knock you out.

“Abstract” opens with the guitars toying with you, snaking through any sense of calm, the playing confounding as the venom is injected. The playing blasts open, shrieks driving pointed blades, a blunt assault raging as guitars gush and melt. “Complexity Parallels” rips in, mucky growls blocking air passages, guitars giving off smoke, lapping your brain with brutal complications. Growls torch as the playing goes into a disarming vortex, the leads sparking once more before bowing out to noise. “Subtraction” stomps through zany guitars and slowly crushing force, going wild while amplifying the technical warping. Explosive energy jolts as guitars scorch, caustic hell unleashing its flames, dissolving in acid. “Vultures” is your closer, and it opens and immediately makes the room spin, the howls spitting scorn as you try to keep your balance. The heat rises as guitars lather, darkness envelopes, and the growls dig the dagger a little deeper for good measure, the final notes disappearing with your consciousness.

Hierarchies establish a few things on their debut, that being technical death metal doesn’t have to be antiseptic and that there remain ways to use this brutal art form to make brains melt out of skulls. This is a record you should visit repeatedly, as each trip lets the music sink in a little deeper, the utter strangeness revealing itself a little more each time. But be wary of the bends, the twists, the defiance of convention that make your imagination burst and blood race a little more as you try to figure out this insane maze of a record.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564013775330

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/

Or here (Europe): https://eu.tometal.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/