Soreption

Soreption is a technical death metal outfit from Sweden. An independently released EP and subsequent albums have established them as a sophisticated, wildly musical yet raw, fast, machine-like outfit whose music is steeped in polyrhythmic, schizophrenic time signatures, dense, angular riffs, and swinging grooves. Formed in 2005 by drummer Tony Westermark and guitarist Anton Svedin — who’d both previously played in various death metal cover bands — they enlisted bass player Rickard Persson and throat-scraping vocalist Fredrik Söderberg. The quartet’s goals from the outset were high. Its three experienced instrumentalists were sophisticated musicians who wrote well together. When the quartet decided to record their initial EP in 2007, they enlisted producers Chris and Tommy Rehn of Angtoria. Titled Illuminate the Excessive, the recording offered a sound equally indebted to the influences of Necrophagist, Meshuggah, and Decapitated. The reviews that greeted the record were celebrated universally by the underground metal press and helped win Soreption a contract with VSP Management. After playing around Sweden and nearby locales for the next couple of years, the band re-entered the studio and emerged with Deterioration of Minds in 2010, their debut full-length for Ninetone. The level of sophistication displayed evoked a celebratory response from the death metal press, who considered them a thoroughly modern band that owed few references to the past in their approach. Over the next several years, Soreption worked the road hard, playing Europe, the United States, and even South America. While touring, they wrote constantly. Recorded and produced by the Rehn brothers, the band’s sophomore album Engineering the Void on Unique Leader Records, was positively noted for its brevity — under 35 minutes — and crushing, unrelenting heaviness. (More than one reviewer claimed to be exhausted at the end of a listening session.) The single and lyric video for “Breaking the Great Narcissist” was the set’s finest moment, given its raucous careen through metric modulation in virtually every riff. The aftermath of the release saw the band playing higher profile festivals and longer tours. Bassist Persson decided he’d had enough of the road, and left the band. He was eventually replaced by Mikael Almgren (Terminal Function). In 2016, founding guitarist Svedin announced his own departure. Almgren moved over to guitar, and six-string bassist Kim Lantto (Facial Abuse, Festering Remains) was drafted just in time for recording sessions for the band’s third album, Monument of the End on Sumerian Records. The album was recorded in adversity given that immediately beforehand, Soreption were frustrated by having a North American tour (and various summer festival dates) canceled due to visa issues. Released in August of 2018, Monument of the End ran up the metal and streaming charts, prompting the group to reschedule their world tour. ~ Thom Jurek