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GIGAN "Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus"
GIGAN "Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus"
By Dr. Abner Mality
When I first heard Chicago's GIGAN what seems like eons ago, I was gobsmacked and flabbergasted by their insane technicality at Warp 10 level speeds. It was a brutally confounding experience but had the virtue of uniqueness. But it has been seven long and quiet years since their last effort and much has changed in the world of tech-death since then. It's seen the rise of the dissonant death metal movement and the evolution of deathcore into stranger and more unpredictable forms. Where doth that leave GIGAN in 2024?
This is a somewhat maddening album, which is par for the course for these guys, but it certainly retains their love of the extreme. The speed is still here, the rapid fire rhythmic changes remain and the crazy guitar solos as well, And as you can tell, the ten dollar pseudo-scientific song titles remain. But there are also some long, annoying stretches of almost pure dissonant noise that just make you grit your teeth with impatience. These pop up during the longer songs "Emerging Sects of Dagonic Acolytes" and "Ominous Silhouettes Across The Gulfs of Time". I don't have a clue what these add to the songs, unless perhaps general unease is what they were aiming for. The songs also seem more "bitty" than before, breaking up into chunks of isolated moments instead of contributing to the bigger picture.
Of course, the playing is crazy adept and the heaviness is ever-present...this is not the kind of tech-death where stretches of free jazz and gentle synth appear. The aggression is not in question.. As always with technical death metal, it's the memorability that is. Years ago, when GIGAN got their start, their sheer weirdness carried the day. But now many bands push themselves into realms unknown and the novelty of GIGAN has worn off. It's a brave new world that has such creatures in it...
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