Spiral Architect
A Sceptic's Universe

More than an album, a true challenge with yourself. The five Norwegians of Spiral Architect offer us what many have termed the masterpiece and the ultimate frontier in technical metal, a genre we can associate with Cynic, Aghora, and all those bands that are much loved by the bassist, and also by me even though I am always accused by our fretless friend of being too power-like. A small note, if you have had some difficulty listening to the CDs of the above-mentioned groups, forget about enduring even a minute of this A Sceptic's Universe without feeling the urgent need to retrieve your Manowar CD covered with fur, just like your long underwear, because I would remind you that those who listen to Manowar consequently only wear fur-lined long underwear.

Aside from the nonsense, the Spiral Architect members, who are involved in various Norwegian supergroups such as Arcturus, Lunaris, and Satyricon, truly know their stuff. It's admirable how all these bands (Cynic & co.) choose not to follow the mainstream, releasing very few albums (in most cases, one) or at significant intervals from one another, as A Sceptic's Universe was released in 2000 and we will have to wait a long time before getting our hands on something new.
As I mentioned at the beginning, listening to this album in one go is nearly impossible, whether it's due to the deliberate complexity of the riffs or because the Norwegian combo doesn't always succeed in transforming time changes, dissonances, and various offbeats into a true song something that Cynic and a few others excel at. Moreover, I'm left with some reservations about Oyvind Hegeland’s performance, whose name I purposely omit numerous phonemes from that would force me into a tedious search on the Windows character map. His vocalizations at the edge of falsetto and tightly stretched notes fail to thrill me, perhaps more suited to a '70s rock band (like, say….maybe the Darkness ;))))))) than a metal group, but most likely this is just a purely subjective opinion.
Everything is fine regarding the other members of Spiral Architect; the guitarists don't get lost in unnecessary solos for their own sake but perform effective work in the rhythmic phase with granite riffs halfway between Cynic and Dream Theater’s “The Mirror.” The performance of the rhythm section, bass-drums, is also excellent, always precise and decidedly very original, especially the bass lines (which will resonate within your speakers like never before), turn out to be anything but bland and predictable.

Ultimately, a very complex album, almost impossible to recommend, definitely for those who want to push beyond the usual nonsense and even beyond Cynic.