No one can outsmart Replacire. Not only does the band hold several degrees from Berklee College of Music. Even their name is something of a puzzle. But for their long-awaited third album, they weren’t interested in pumping out just another set of rigorously technical death metal. As their new single so finely demonstrates, they wanted to flex both their brains and brawn.
Listen to “A Fine Manipulation”: https://youtu.be/zBwi7lDgNww
The Center That Cannot Hold comes out June 21, 2024 on Season of Mist.
Order & Stream: https://orcd.co/replacirethecenterthatcannotholdpresave
Metalheads of all shapes and sizes have come to count on Replacire for a dizzying mental workout. The Center That Cannot Hold keeps those synapses firing. On “A Fine Manipulation”, drummer Joey Ferretti and bassist Zak Baskin hardly break a sweat as they run you through a gauntlet of stomach-turning tempo shifts. Before the song is halfway through its compact four-minute runtime, Poh Hock has already lapped the field with a solo that hurdles through the air like a sprinter.
“A Fine Manipulation” will twist even the brainiest tech-death scholar into a pretzel, but the band’s new single works out all your core headbanging muscles. After warming up with some curls of melodic dissonance and a few short but clenched bursts of nervy shredding, Hock gets a spot from rhythm guitarist Eric Alper as the two lock into the kind of steadily pulverizing downhill chug that’s bound for the mosh pit.
“During our last tour, we noticed that fans really responded to the parts of our set that are heavier and more crushing”, says Alper, who when he’s not cranking out records at Ugly Duck Studios is competing as a body builder. “When writing our new album, we tried to come up with more songs like this one. ‘A Fine Manipulation’ retains that technical density that metal fans love, but it’s also more straightforward and hard-hitting in a way that makes people move around”.
Of course, it wasn’t so easy for Replacire to stick to that relatively simple blueprint. Like their current label mates and former tour mates Gorguts and Beyond Creation, this band has always taken their time when it comes to the heavy lifting of writing a new album. But between the global pandemic, countless Zoom calls, bouts with writer’s block, depression, anxiety, sleep paralysis and one near trip to the hospital, their new album is seven long years in the making.
But despite what the title might suggest, The Center That Cannot Hold holds strong and steady. Like any song that’s worth its weight in heavy metal, “A Fine Manipulation” channels that chaotic shit storm into a concentrated, empowering force. James Dorton is so imposing that even his cleans thunder like Zeus, but his growls have never struck more fear.
“I am your lord god”, he roars, as if throwing the weight of the world off his shoulders, before the rest of the band launches into the album’s most muscular breakdown.
On “A Fine Manipulation”, Replacire prove they’re the full package.
