But that length of time is a tall order for a relatively young death metal band to sustain, and though songs like “Swarm” and “Of Omnipotence” bring ideas to the plate that are new even for a band this adventurous, the material across Apus is spotty. The Schoenberg Automaton make a habit out of such excellent but unexpected passages, and their uneven distribution across Apus keeps the album rolling along even across thirteen songs and over fifty minutes. Hot off the heels of “Year Zero,” the song’s midsection is replete with tricky stop-start riffing and angular leads, but the band really bring the heat at 2:40, when the song plunges into an intense melodic bridge that’s easily the highlight of the first few tracks. Had the sophomore slump stymied their songs? Yet early-release tracks from Apus had me worried that the band had abandoned just what made their previous releases so interesting and vital. The Brisbane-cum-Vancouver-based technical death metal outfit caught my eye with their first EP and took off in 2013 with Vela, which built on their progressive and extreme roots, expanding their unique and abstract sound quite successfully. After three years plagued by seemingly perpetual setbacks, The Schoenberg Automaton’s second full-length Apus has finally made the journey from a studio in Australia to my speakers in Chicago.
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