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Victims of Contagion are a Pittsburgh-based Tech Death act that have been active since 2005, taking a good 14 years before releasing an EP and this, their full-length debut, a year afterwards. Guess they spent most of that time refining their craft, as Lamentations of the Flesh Bound is a prime example of how you do this kind of thing correctly. The playing is as professional and highwire as you'd expect from the genre, reminding me of similar acts like Immolation, Incantation, and Demilich. Thankfully, they refrain from the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink songwriting approach that plagues many of their contemporaries and actually write some damn solid songs that incorporate a rumbling rhythm section to balance out and inform the hyper-speed technicality. They even have the good sense to slow down in places, mainly on the tracks "Sisyphus (The Virtue of Suicide)" and "Autophagous Horizons", the latter of which is a 12-minute behemoth that closes the album in a whirlwind of dark, intricate riffing, oppressive heaviness, and startling rhythm changes. Overall, Victims of Contagion have come out of the gate as one of the better bands in their style, showing a clear understanding that the role of technicality in Death Metal is to support the face-smashing heaviness rather than distract from it. Well worth your time.