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The wild nature of technical death metal first emerged in a more controlled sense with the jazz mentality of Cynic and Death's tasteful, more progressive edge, but over the years the "technical" aspect of the genre reigned supreme. Riffs became, well, impenetrable walls of shredding mania, and while I can certainly appreciate the Pavors and Demilichs of the world, technical death metal's new age almost verges on noise. What most seem to forget is that technicality is only half the battle, and from the noise of technical death metal emerged a new school of bands, including Ulcerate, Ara, and now Sunless, which, much like Anata before them, placed musicality and composition on the same pedestal as the prowess which defined their music.

After turning heads with a two-song demo last year, Minneapolis-based Sunless quickly moved their way up the "death metal albums to look out for" list here at Invisible Oranges. Though this trio's musical proficiency is immediately apparent, Sunless's approach is more restrained and motif-based, utilizing their talents in a more "song-oriented" setting instead of the "play until we can't anymore" approach which characterizes technical music in general. Note the slower, more melodic introduction to their song "The Ancient Ones," Sunless's music isn't about showing off or being guitar heroes, but instead champions intricate, interesting songwriting with the chops to bolster it. Making catchy, memorable music is more of a feat than simply shredding, which makes Sunless a more interesting entity in a field of fluttering fingers.

Urraca will be independently released by SUNLESS with digital, digipak CD, and cassette formats to be made available on February 24th. Preorders for the physical formats are live at Bandcamp here. Scroll below for a first listen to the song "The Ancient Ones".

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Follow Sunless on Bandcamp here.

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PS. having mentioned Anata earlier, I feel like there is a new, vague announcement regarding the album they completed recording in 2008 once every few years. Does anyone have any insight?

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