Intending to illustrate iconoclasm through dissociative muse Italian technical death metal trio AVTOTHEISM direct a path of old and new compositions here on their sophomore full-length album as they go on examining the existential dialogues between mankind, the natural world and the kneeling concept of God as folly. ‘Reflections of Execrable Stillness‘ is essentially a retcon of an old longform piece and a trio of new songs which act as a half-start beyond their debut LP, more of a collection of leftovers from their first six year phase as a group. Fans of dissonant and contemplative technical death metal with callous sound design and at-times challenging nuance should appreciate the still-developing chill of their disso-death sound as these folks continue to chip away at profundity herein.

Avtotheism formed circa 2016 and made quick work of their collective ideas between 2016-2022 writing and recording the bulk of what has been released as a quartet since. Initially focused on a sterile, abrupt brutal death metal style with a guttural yet cold register on their first EP (‘Hives MMXVII‘, 2017) they’d clarified their goals as a technical death metal band by the time their standalone song ~17 minute song “CLSTVM: Dogma Sculptured in the Flesh” (2018) introduced a more spaced and exaggerative hand interested in an Immolation-esque sway and increasing use of dissonant and skronking pathed single note riffs. Keep that song in mind and check out the original version if you will because Side B of this new record is a re-recording of that exact same piece more-or-less note for note; While those preemptive releases were testing the waters the band had spent roughly two years working on their debut LP (‘The Sleeper Awakens‘, 2021) which’d released a couple years after completing likely due to pandemia. That record had obviously taken more to the Ulcerate inspired spectrum of death metal to some degree in moving away from bluntly brutal and compacted phrases to multi-direction fluid strikes of semi-dissonant craft and heavy use of repetitious strikes.

The expectations set by Avtotheism on that (yet virtually unnoticed) debut LP suggested a dark ambient streak, increasingly introspective craft and ambitious use of ringing dissonance to generate both intricacy and disarray. This is more-or-less what they’ve achieved here on this second album which is technically a gathering of leftover compositions from writing sessions as a quartet both before and after ‘The Sleeper Awakens‘. From what I gather their drummer had left in 2022 and the remnants of their work that year comprise Side A on ‘Reflections of Execrable Stillness‘ with four songs, all of which appear to directly follow up on the dynamic that’d been ambitiously formed on their debut LP. A full album follow up would’ve been worth the wait but I appreciate that this release is probably for the sake of getting all of those ideas out there now and moving forward as a trio.

From the oozing, prog-flickering slow burn into mid-paced disjointed scatter on opener “Multitudes of the Sands I” to the more immediately confrontation blast and swerved rhythms that kick off “Multitudes of the Sands II” we find the band’s guitarists exploring tempo and tension in a variety of ways, as if composing each piece on a gradually rotating circular slope where a sense of revolving motion is indicated by swells of speed and chunkier grooves. On repeated listens I’d noted a sort of leitmotif gluing those two pieces together in forming a complete statement though I’m not sure I’d ever gotten past the colder, stark feeling of their render to start. By comparison “Incarnations Of Hush” is almost lively in its escalating dual rhythmic step and inched-forth guitar progressions, anchored by a buzzing semi-distorted bass guitar tone and somewhat flat tech-death drum render. It also features a guitar solo by the impressive Matteo Gresele (Ad Nauseam) which helps add some color to these somewhat dry-rubbed ideas. Unfortunately that is basically where Side A ends beyond a dark ambient piece, leaving the curious listener or existing fan with about ~18 minutes worth of new death metal action to pick through for interest.

That isn’t to say there there isn’t enough of an album built between these two halves only that the much older composition of “Dogma Sculptured in the Flesh” appears on a different wavelength than anything on Side A as a patient set of separate actions between the two guitarists which eventually circle each other and collude. This of course comes after the long ambient section in the midst of the piece (and another which plays out the end) which pads out the song without adding anything too wildly profound to the listener’s experience beyond a break from the ringing harass of the guitar tone. I’m not entirely sure this is a re-recording or a revised version of this song beyond perhaps the render, allowing it to normalize with the 2022 written pieces on Side A and in that sense this isn’t the most thrilling way to round out the full listen.

Even when setting aside the timeline of events and the notion that this LP is more of a collection of remnants, taking into account the suggested theme of the band’s work, the juxtaposition of old work versus new felt like an inversion of interest where more advanced compositional ideas are followed by less focused, meandering notions that only just barely connect into readable theme. While I don’t find Avtotheism all that profound in their musical statement overall I do think there is some great potential for the chemistry of their action to produce more challenging and/or emotive events. Though the sense of trepidation and unsure pathing lingers through the full experience here it is yet appreciably surreal, at times awkward to follow and entertaining as dissociative technique built death metal. A moderately high recommendation.

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