Hey there fellow tech fiends! Did you miss me in my short absence from posting between the end of last year and now? It's okay if you didn't, I wouldn't miss me either. However, I hope at least you all had a good holiday break and a solidly drunken New Year. Now that we've entered into 2016, I'm psyched to bring you the first 2016 installment of Tech-Death Tuesday. If anyone is joining us for the first time, the goal of this column is to bring lesser known technical death metal bands to your ears. So with that in mind, I've got two excellent releases for you to check out today.

Blame- Dark Eyes

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I've got to give credit to longtime metal blogger Apoch from apoch.net for messaging me and bringing the Ukranian band Blame to my attention. This would have completely skipped my attention otherwise as its a 2014 release that only recently got put up on bandcamp. Which is how my friend found it, though a a quick google search shows me these guys didn't get a lot of coverage for Dark Eyes. So I'm going to bet its new to most people reading this. Blame play a particularly mechanical type of tech-death, though it dips into shred frenzied moments to be sure. Dark Eyes has this cold dark atmosphere to it that's pretty unique, and the meaty audible bass playing throughout acts as an awesome foil to their cybernetic coldness. Ever since I first heard it I haven't been able to put it down, which is typically a good sign for me that it's a release I'm excited to share around. Dark Eyes is pure decimating attitude and palpable dread delivered with a near inhuman fury. Definitely a band to keep an eye on, as I'd assume that they might already have something new in the works since this came out some time ago.

Dark Eyes by Blame

Æpoch-Æpochalypse

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We now move on to technical death metal on the proggier side of things with Æpoch, after pummeling you into the grave with what Blame has to offer. For those unfamiliar with Æpoch, the band hails from Cambridge, Ontario and has been active for a few years now. Æpoch first came onto my radar in with their 2013 Demo, and I'm happy that the band chose to put two of the songs from it onto Æpochalypse so that more people can hear them. The two they carried over from the demo to here are "Plummet" and "City Of Statues". Which are loaded at the front of the release, and then from there the brand new songs show a lot of evolution for Æpoch sonically. The bulk of this release falls more towards progressive death metal in a Death influenced kind of way mixed with more modern and technical death metal flourishes. There is an interesting blend of old school and new school ideas fused together here by standout songwriting that keeps me coming back. With Æpochalypse, the band has solidified their sound while expanding it at the same time. In doing so they've piqued my interest in a big way and I can't wait to hear what they come up with next.