Band: Protosequence
Album: Bestiary
Country: Canada
Genre: Death Metal
Release Date: April 5th, 2024
Label: Lacerated Enemy Records
Author: Michael Litteral
Let me start by saying this album has been such a pleasure to review. I’m a huge black metal guy nowadays, and death metal usually doesn’t do it for me as it once did. But, this year, I have been falling back into my love for the genre.
Protosequence has been jamming in the Edmonton, Alberta scene since 2014 and has released a slew of EPs and singles throughout the years, but now we are given their highly anticipated debut, BESTIARY!
Protosequence caused stirring winds in the underground scene with their 2020 release, A Blunt Description of Something Obscene, which was received well and is part of what has people everywhere watching and waiting for the drop of this beast.
Bestiary takes everything from the latter and fine-tunes it with such precision that it elevates the band’s circle into a sphere. With so many influences and tastes from the entire rock/metal spectrum, the idea of this album, to me at least, would seem like such a daunting task to complete without it sounding like a bunch of cut/paste sections.
Thankfully, Protosequence is a tight-knit group of friends who have great chemistry together, and mixing all of the components create a harmonic remedy for a style that usually loses my interest from the lack of flow traded in for flashy widdly diddlies.
If you call in sick to work from headbanging your head too vigorously to this gem, don’t tell your boss I didn’t warn you. The grooves and, at times, an underlying flow that connects the music’s unhinged conventionalism will bring you back for more, and you will find little easter eggs you didn’t notice before.
This album makes you loud and proud to be a fan of the extreme genres of metal. This is definitely an album that I have listened to with high volumes, and when driving, windows down to show people just what the fuck’s up. (Pardon my French)
Bestiary will be released through the prolific Lacerated Enemy Records on April 5th, 2024, digitally and physically. Make sure to pick up a copy on vinyl or CD, and support this group before they explode, and you are forced to spend good money on an OOP copy.
You heard it here first.
Biography: Michael Litteral is just your friendly neighborhood metalhead who can’t seem to find his way out of the black, and he’s just fine with that.
