Acknowledging the void left by a decade-plus spent in seeming silent ponderance Caen, France-based progressive death metal project ARCHITECT OF SETH revives to detail the torture of bound sentience, a reclamation of the self and psyche from misrepresentation. Proposed as an eclectic, technical form of thrashing death metal the solo artist’s sophomore full-length album, ‘Solitude Solaire‘, represents a lifetime’s worth of pursuit in fantastical glom wherein the total thread grants greater immerse with each step taken. A multi-generational extraction set to balance the emergent burst of extreme music with the bombastic elaboration of progressivity the artist’s work here characterizes itself with carefully crafted and neatly threaded elements of auld thrash, black and doom metal under the umbrella of progressive death metal old-and-new.

Architect of Seth materialized back in 2006 by way of musician Pyromancer who is known as a drummer in various local projects (Ghusa, Black Tears, etc.) alongside Mathieu Legrand (Exutory) as they’d quickly gotten to work on two demo CD-R releases befitting of the MySpace era and adjacent uptick in technical death metal aspirations. Those demos aren’t readily available online but you can catch the bands first live performance as well as some song previews/videos if you dig deep enough. The band’s inspiration was made very clear between the progressive death metal of the 90’s and the shred-nerd possibilities unlocked via the clandestine emergence of groups like Necrophagist. The actual expression and scope of their deployment mutated on the road to a debut LP (‘The Persistence of Scars‘, 2013) this time working with Yohann Kochel of Etrange. Their work on that album split the difference between the melodramatic tech-death of Extol and Theory in Practice and the Schuldiner-inspired edge of earlier Martyr (Canada) and/or late 90’s Carcariass. From that point the band’s founder was an island adrift and the band’s activity stalled down to a ruminating solo project.

A follow up album was developed and written between the release of ‘The Persistence of Scars‘ and about ~2016 before nearly a decade of gestation and consideration would see its completion in 2025. Those efforts ultimately became ‘Solitude Solaire‘, a two way portal between the still-burning ambition of their incitement and the solitudinous defeat of the individual. In the interim Pyromancer developed as a musician, building up the capability to handle all instruments and performances involved and (I assume) leaving behind the programmed drums of all prior releases. As a result the Architect of Seth experience of today is a personal extraction of these circumstances, a monolith to one mind’s process as much as it is a depiction of broad taste which includes nodules of classic death metal, prog metal, black metal, doom and beyond. All arrives in a level of abundance which is rarely outwardly tuneful but not without its own directive and idiosyncratic style.

The real tour-de-force moment on ‘Solitude Solaire‘ is immediate as opener “Fortress of Injuries” generates an inspired mélange of ‘old school’ death hits, modern tech-thrash grooves and orchestrally oozed backing which lands somewhere between late 2010’s Revocation and ‘Testimony of the Ancients‘ in practice. This is even more glaring within the faster ripper follow-up “Karma Trance” where 90’s groove focused riffcraft is the anchor for Architect of Seth‘s action. The initial density of these shorter ~4-5 minute pieces up front lends the album a sense of urgency as their reintroduction is that of a fleet-fingered actor fully conscious of both modern standards and their own beginnings decades past. It is too much of a mashing of elements to read as obviate in its nostalgia but the snappier energetic tech-thrash rooted attack sets the tone of the experience within its whirlwind appearance.

The Schuldiner inspired side of Pyromancer‘s expression is never so blatant that one could point it out directly, and most ears will validly point to Nocturnus as an “easy” reference here, but we begin to see the broader prog-death elaboration of Architect of Seth on the mid-portion of ‘Solitude Solaire‘. “Natura Morte” gets there steadily over its ~9 minute ethereal climb but it is “Paradis Sans Vie” that floods the landscape with some manner of symphonic tech-death thrumming. This is the pocket of the experience, where all elements are revealed and set in place beyond introductions, it is also key catalyst for the suggested symphonic elements as a characterizing force rather than accoutrement. The only complaint I’d had beyond the whiplash of their punchier prog-metal action is the use of pitch shifted narration which features throughout the full listen. This mars the stone-face elegance of the album’s slate, recalling some of the odd choices made on records like Messiah‘s ‘Rotten Perish‘, if only briefly.

The peak of the overall thread, the standout moment for my own taste, comes via the Ancient Rites-esque qualities applied to the blustering movement of “Tunnel of Oblivion”, its thrashing symphonic entanglement and use of ramping progressions recalling the idiosyncratic bombast of said band to some degree. Here we see the heightened actualization, or, intensification of the alchemy at hand beyond cohesion unto decadent excess which translates directly to the doomed turn taken within the finale of closer “Mes Mains qui se Perdent”. Angelic chorale and groaning-loose melodic death/doom metal movement introduce said final piece, providing a resolute destination for all of the forward-packed energy that’d persisted throughout ‘Solitude Solaire‘. I don’t know that it feels like a point of rest so much as an aching collapse, a fight against drowning with an unclear winner.

‘Solitude Solaire‘ is the sort of album which is so exactingly personalized by the eclectic taste of artist behind it that it’d be reasonable to question one’s summary description of it with each pass. Per my experience the core entertainment value here comes in witness of how capably the artist’s several decades of generational passage through extreme metal fandom (and practicum) informs, weaves the total thread without derailing it. In the process of melding these interests beyond rote munitions and tropes Architect of Seth develops a voice in protest to institutions of control, a reactive balk which doesn’t deign to sew up old wounds so much as wear its scarification in solidarity. I don’t know that every aspect of their work is exactly to my own taste but the artist’s ambitions land with brilliant cohesion here, offering a grand point of redemption for the self-built. A high recommendation.

---