While Sulaco‘s full length debut, Tearing Through the Roots was a solid slab of technical death metal, the band’s follow-up, 2011′s Build & Burn takes the band’s sound to a whole new level of awesome. This time around the Erik Burke-fronted quartet fly through seven tracks of original progressive technical death metal, that’ll leave any prog/tech fan in a puddle of their own filth.

The material on Build & Burn feels like a logical progression from the band’s previous release. The album is filled with killer original songwriting, constant tempo changes, great melodies and is a refreshing breath of fresh air in an increasingly stagnant genre. The overwhelming majority of death metal bands who claim to be “progressive,” never really create anything new or unique, they seem content to just play slightly modified Death, Cynic and Atheist songs, and pass them off as their own. Not Sulaco though, Erik Burke and friends have made a concerted effort to create something completely original in the progressive metal genre.

The riffing is tight and technical, with plenty of odd time signatures, tempo changes, blazing leads, and is infectiously catchy. Erik Burke’s vocals are pretty solid on here as well, he doesn’t bother with a silly death metal grunt or growl, he just sticks with a more natural sounding wail. Not 80s thrash style, just a powerful howl with a Chuck Schuldiner-like vocal cadence (though completely different vocal delivery).

The bass lines compliment the guitars and the drumming has a lot of variety, it’s not like so many bands whose drummer just blasts so much when he steps away from the drum kit he twitches and shakes like an over caffeinated zombie. It’s clear Chris Golding has taken the time to learn how to play the drums, and wants to show off the skills he has and doesn’t rely on playing the same fucking relentless triggered blast and cymbal smash for an hour.

I’m actually very surprised that this album isn’t being released by Willowtip, Relapse or any other bigger label than Handshake Inc. If Willowtip had the chance to release this and turned it down, label head Jason Tipton needs a slap across the face. I’m talking southern gentleman style, like Jason just offended my girlfriend, but instead of challenging him to a duel with a white glove, I’d do it with with a cock smack across his neck while making direct eye contact. I don’t mean that to sound like an erotic act, it would be an act of animalistic dominance, and shaming him by forcing him to wear the purple mark of the cock welt for having not released this album, and instead choosing to release a bunch of boring hacks ripping off Death, Cynic and Athiest and rehashing the same ideas over and over again. Of course if he wasn’t offered the chance to release this, I take it back and offer him a firm and hearty handshake and implore him to negotiate the CD release rights for this fantastic album as it completely humbles every prog/tech death album Willowtip has ever released. Not hatin’, just sayin’.

While I was disappointed with the most recent album featuring Erik Burke’s guitar work, Brutal Truth‘s End Times, he didn’t stay in my shitlist for long. Sulaco‘s Build & Burn is easily the best progressive death metal album released in decades, maybe ever, and while you may think that praise might be undeserved, I can tell you that this album is so good that disliking it will cause your brain to explode in violent defiance. Fucking awesome!

Review byTeufel