Californian tech-death giants CONTINUUM have premiered a Scott Ruud produced lyric video for their song ‘Theorem‘. The pummelling technical track, which Decibel called “crushingly heavy and executed with machinelike precision”, is taken from the group’s highly anticipated new album Designed Obsolescence set for release on February 22nd via Unique Leader Records.
Vocalist Riley McShane commented, “The album title Designed Obsolescence comes from the term “planned obsolescence” which refers to a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so it will become obsolete (that is, unfashionable or no longer functional) after a certain period of time. That idea is, in the tradition of our debut album The Hypothesis, applied to a science-fiction background in which humans are commingled with machine elements and designed to live, function, and then die out accordingly. This doubles as an analogy for modern civilization in which people are born, grow up, work, retire and die according to what is deemed to be normal and expected of them, often without question or opposition. It’s an age-old storytelling device used to persuade people to break out of the scheduled and mundane and view the world in a less bleak perspective, hopefully in our sophomore release we can do the same.”
Designed Obsolescence was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Zack Ohren at Castle Ultimate Studios and features nine violent, incredibly technical, and endlessly engaging tracks which showcase how the group, which features current and former members of Animosity, Deeds of Flesh, Decrepit Birth, Allegaeon, possess an otherworldly command of the genre. Drums were recorded by new member Ron Casey (Inanimate Existence, ex-Brain Drill, ex-Rings of Saturn) whose surgically precise playing is the perfect complement to band’s technical prowess. Artwork was created by the incredible Par Olofsson.
Continuum are a technical death metal band from Santa Cruz, CA that was formed in the summer of 2009 by guitarist Chase Fraser following the disbanding of Animosity, a bay area metal band. After a couple years writing and rehearsing with different musicians, a lineup was fleshed out featuring Riley McShane of Allegeon on vocals, Ivan Munguia of Deeds of Flesh on guitar, Nick Willbrand on bass and Spencer Edwards on drums.
This lineup started playing very frequently in the bay area with bands like Fallujah, Obscura, Pathology, Abigail Williams, Decrepit Birth, Abysmal Dawn among others, and eventually released their first album on Unique Leader records in April of 2015. Fast forward three years and Continuum are back with their second album. With the addition of Ron Casey on drums (Inanimate Existence, ex Brain Drill, ex Rings of Saturn) and a wider spectrum of progressive technical death metal song writing, this is by far their most realized and well thought out release to date.
Designed Obsolescence track-listing:
1. Theorem
2. Release from flesh and blood
3. A History Denied
4. Designed Obsolescence
5. All Manner Of Decay
6. Autonomic
7. Into The Void
8. Remnants Of Ascension
9. Repeating Actions
Pre-order the album here:
Physical: https://www.indiemerch.com/uniqueleader/band/continuum
Digital: https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/designed-obsolescence
