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After kicking up a lot of dust with their last disc, Origin have produced what will undoubtedly be their breakthrough with the furious technical assault of their fourth full-length album Antithesis. I have said repeatedly that I am not a fan of Technical Death Metal, but even I can't deny that this is a nearly flawless album of intricate and feral metal wrath.

Origin are technical — ye gods are they ever — but they never commit the sin of jerking off, and what really stopped me in my tracks about this album is how tight and coherent it is. Complex this may be, but it never sacrifices crunch for delicacy, and this remains at heart a snarling, vicious Death Metal album. There is no wind-up, no dull intro track, they just come screaming out of the gate with "The Aftermath" and they hardly let up for a second after that. Intense, fast-chopping rhythm work blasts by in a whirlwind of time changes and hairpin stops that add to the brutality rather than detracting from it. The performances are flawless, and the melodic leads shimmer through like sharpened lightning bolts. Origin made a smart decision by keeping the guttural roar of the vocals down in the mix, where it complements the music, rather than barfing all over it, as so often happens with this kind of band.

If I have to level any caveats at this album, it's that sometimes the relentless, bellowing ferocity is a little too much. But this disc is so good that that's really a very minor quibble. Even the ten-minute hurricane of the title track holds its own as a lethal composition that never wears out its welcome, and for a band of this type, that's something to be proud of. Fans of Tech metal should get this without hesitation, and even those who aren't, like me, should check it out. Impressive.