Technicality, like most buzzwords in the metal world, has undergone it’s fair share of paradigm shifts. As evolving movements in heavy music have always used the technical aspects of their genre to warp, experiment and reinvent their overall sound, it is safe to say that this term goes hand in hand with the unconventional. Jumping past this decade’s rich and overstuffed fuckery with rhythm, taste, and musicianship, we arrive at 2009′s Spectrum, by a Toronto band named Starring Janet Leigh. Their debut album represents an effective overview of the technical music family tree; we have have some Lucid Interval and Within Dividia here, Calculating Infinity, and Whisper Supremacy there… the influences are undeniable, and yet this album is something to be excited about. The audaciously speedy mish mash of cutthroat technical death metal, crusty grind, and math fusion have a strikingly cohesive sound.

It has come to the point that you have to accept that complex rhythms and structures in tech had been replaced by prodigal Canon D masturbators and janitorial fixations. Yet on Spectrum, what you get is a truly rhythmically challenging album; the mathematic compositions are inventive, truly disorienting, and give good tabbing sport for the fucked up analysts out there. This is doubtlessly helped by a nasty and abrasive heap of devestating riffs and protracted low end tremolo picking. The death metal fretwork in “Noire” is a particular standout, and likewise the brutal Godzilla breakdown in “Ex You”.They are fresh, dripping with urgent venom and attitude. The solos are vibrato laced cock rock abominations… if there is one thing these songs have, it is personality.

Special mention should be given to the percussion on this disc. This is, bar none, the most impressive drum performance of the year. Aaron Pozzer‘s speed, sheer ability, and range of influence is immediately shocking.  There is Kollias rivalling foot speed, Longstreth gravity blasting annihilation, all of which punctuated by endlessly involving jazz cymbals and polyrhythmic insanity. Search no farther than the extended cruciality in “Wrath” (you know, the one after the inexplicable Green Day riff) for a prime example of how fucking inhuman this monster is.

This is an incredibly impressive debut album.  Yet Starring Janet Leigh, as a band , do not fully transcend their genre.  There is nothing fundamentally new brought to the table, except a return to form for their contemporaries. Regardless, the musicianship, focus, and sheer desire to disorient makes this a must listen.  As a beast that is well written, willing to take risks, and one that lives up to the old school tech mantra, this is an album to be excited about. Smart technical music is back.

(8.5/10)