Pillars of geologic carnage left behind by unimaginable beings ring and radiate with shades of creeping darkness, transmitting a state of massive dementia felt under the obscuring hand of unknowable possessors who’d cast their guidance directly toward Jacksonville, Florida-based progressive death metal quartet HAXPROCESS who’d now deign to explore the pandemonium of the mind in this warped, vexing second chapter. Throngs of riff woven by minds set to consume in hungered access of the unknown feature as the central purpose of ‘Beyond What Eyes Can See‘, an album which takes one step closer to the unreal in creation of threads which seek continuous and elevated consciousness via rhythmic excess. Or, in more practical terms we find a sense of exploration and fascination of another order within these four longform progressive death metal pieces as these fairly young troops source an imaginative voice which thoroughly avoids the attention-deficit lax of modern death metal slop. Practiced but not perfectionist and presented without any shortcuts in sight these folks may not bring abject brutality within their offerings though their work smacks of idealism and determined craft in a realm otherwise dominated by the opportune and unthinking.

After feeling no kinship with the progressive metal they’d been playing as teenagers Haxprocess formed as a death metal band circa 2020 by way of guitarist/vocalist Lothar Mallea and drummer Adam Robinson with I believe the former acting as the main songwriter of most of their material to date. The earlier lineup of the band was a quartet but the details aren’t readily accessible as their digital only ‘Merciless‘ EP from 2021 is no longer online, otherwise an early quartet line-up featuring guitarist Shane Williamson (Dead Centre) and now former bassist Ben Gabriel can be viewed in the video version of ‘At One with Time‘ rehearsal demo from late 2021. The style we find on those early recordings is of course a conglomeration of classic (but not necessarily squarely early 90’s) progressive death metal which incorporates interest in progressive rock and thrash metal via longform compositions. Those ideas, some older than the band but mostly new, translated directly into their debut full-length album (‘The Caverns of Duat‘, 2023) a record which I’d championed at the time setting it at #15 on my Top 75 Albums of the Year list. Before that year was up they’d already been working on songs for this new album, posting an impressive demo of “Sepulchral Void” as they’d sought representation, eventually landing with the good folks over at Transcending Obscurity.

In terms of what Haxprocess offer to the greater death metal headspace the best comparison I’d offer to folks with serious interest in the sub-genre is late 2000’s The Chasm per the contemplative adventure put forth as well the first two Opeth albums in terms of meandering yet determined longform song structures which take a variety of turns before their realization. These songs aren’t always so neatly cinched in form, nor are they as repetitious, but they do not constitute linearly cut riff salad or post-metal gesturing. While one could point to “cosmic” death metal of the 2010’s (Blood Incantation, etc.) as most key relevance to the effect of the quartet’s sound I’d say that is mostly for the sake of passing categorization and reads as superficial in direct comparison. Most of these observations hold up for album number two as ‘Beyond What Eyes Can See‘ both compliments and extends the vision of ‘The Caverns of Duat‘ sonically and stylistically, presenting similar live-in-studio production values and render. With that said, this is a different experience which reflects both evolving capabilities and more current authorship/interests that effectively tips things deeper into the pure-yet-weirding death metal spectrum.

“The Confines of the Flesh” might be the most obviate example of this change, not only for its ‘Formulas Fatal to the Flesh‘-toned movements but the range of guitar-centered expression deployed, which rolls from acrobatic scrawl toward more technical grooves and back down to restfully stoked movements. A song like this does generally resemble the salad of an album like ‘Hidden History of the Human Race‘ in some respect per the Morbid Angel-esque reference but in this case these ideas are built to string together with more patient sense rather than rallied through sans any transitional thought. As was the case with the previous album most Haxprocess songs are either intertwined or represent a contiguous thought, so, all that surrounds this piece relates to it before transitioning to a different thought. The best example of this is maybe “They Inner Demon Seed”, taking on some of that Florida death metal fuming within its first half, something a bit more ‘Covenant‘ feeling in its brood, before the middle of the song touches upon the earlier technical death/thrash side of their gig. This was a key piece for my own taste per the number of turns taken + high riff count but also for their expansion beyond known sounds, smaller details which keep the lava flowing such as the harrowing snarled vocals at the apex of the piece.

It is easy to get drawn into the vortex here and focus on the minutiae of Haxprocess‘ work as aggressive guitar music, the sheer immersive quality of their riffcraft in action is the biggest draw for each of their LPs to date, yet I’d found myself appreciating the patient, kinda “epic” heavy metal toned ventures within most. This was especially true of closer “Sepulchral Void” which has changed a fair deal beyond its demo phase, extending its length by about a minute and re-ordering a few parts though the opener is the one that bears the strongest gravity hit. Even if I couldn’t recall half of the riffs they’d packed into “Where Even Stars Die” it’d been consistently tough to step away from once catalyzed into action, a thread I’d wanted to follow through on each time I’d picked the album up; Some of the gestures included in these four songs are on the simpler side and a few aren’t exactingly related but the whole affair appears organically pulled together in a rehearsal space rather than the usual spliced-together tropes which plagues a lot of popular USDM at the moment. I’m not so much suggesting that ‘Beyond What Eyes Can See‘ appeals squarely for the sake of not following whatever bland trend everyone is soaking up at the moment but it certainly helps that these folks take their process seriously as it continues to evolve. Any band this willing to put the work into these feats of mind-wringing endurance rather than dry hardcorish plod is worth celebrating from my point of view and overall far more likely to win over longtime fans of death metal.

Haxprocess have endless dimensions to consider, a million places they could go, bigger songs to write and more extreme metal to explore as such young folks and in this sense an album like ‘Beyond What Eyes Can See‘ is a worthy exploration, an album which speaks to discovery, fandom first but also a determined work ethic paying off. While I’m not sure this is their defining statement just yet it proves that the first album wasn’t a fluke of passing interest and that their original thread is capable foil for further expansion. While I appreciate that this record explores more varietal pacing and goes off on numerous brilliant tangents with a strong sense of purpose beyond the last I’m curious to see how their take on progressive death metal mutates in the future, moreso than most, as this immediate “chapter two” achieves a pretty righteous ideal without bending toward the lowest common denominator. I think the next challenge for the band is impact, specifically finding a breakthrough take or esoteric act which sticks in mind beyond this present high. A very high recommendation.

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