In an attempt to distance from The Faceless, The Zenith Passage has recruited two members who gave life to one of that act’s most cherished releases, Planetary Duality—Brandon Giffin (ex-The Faceless) and Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless, John Frum) provide, respectively, the pulse and throat of Datalysium. The Zenith Passage’s debut effort Solipsist crackled with a flame stoked by the identity that The Faceless set ablaze with dry and percussive pick spittings, alien-warble soloing, and sneakily grooving rhythm, but it wasn’t all so cut from the same cloth. Main mind McKinney even then seemed to have thoughts a touch more mechanical firing in his brain chamber. With dialed-down guitar warmth to highlight brutal precision and a mood that casts aside the histrionics of neoclassical flourishes, Datalysium follows this piston-pumped path to an uncompromising degree.
To open the door to fellow cast-offs from the rotating Keene machine, The Zenith Passage has shifted bodies such that sole founding member Justin McKinney checks in as the only returning performer. And rather than find a new permanent stick-slammer—drummer Matt Paulazzo (Aegaeon, Alluvial) does provide a rat-a-tat-tat to some tracks—McKinney too handles programming for the clack and splash of simulated rhythm on some songs. Though in the face a guitar tone that has an equally low-gain and dissipating presence, rivaling staccato happy acts like Entheos or Black Crown Initiate but with stricter control, the non-human kit chatter feels fitting. If it weren’t for the often audible and popping sizzle1 that Giffin hits on his thick strings (and oh that fretless sexing on “Synaptic Depravation”), it’d be hard to remember that any fingers or limbs were involved in Datalysium at all.
This tension between the jazzy flair of Giffin’s smooth and thumping ride, McKinney’s fusion-minded solos, and constant pneumatic pummel stacks Datalysium with an odd flow. McKinney’s meticulous and overbearingly errorless style lacks the requisite legato for the kind of grooves that you find in associated acts like Alluvial or The Faceless. Caught in the opening quartet of these especially choppy rhythm-minded tracks, I feel like I’m spinning wheels at a djentrified cycling studio.2 The Zenith Passage might have some easily extractable crowd-punishing numbers in the cranking “Algorithmic Salvation” and “Lexicontagion,” but frequent exposure to these rapid-fire repetitions has me more often caught in a time loop.3 The sudden brightness of a dreamy patch intrusion that opens “Deletion Cult” marks the first breakaway from the rat race—more Tribal Tech than tech death really—but that too collapses under the weight of a frighteningly recursive riff. Smartly, McKinney peppers recalled melodies here and there to make the second half feel like an achievement of some sort, synth backings that feel more Elfman than Paganini (“Synaptic Depravation,” the “Divinertia” duo). You just have to make it there.
Whereas the mechanical leanings drive and stall the first half of Datalysium, the bright moments that cut through the second half scratch heavy potential. With synth swells taking a more prominent role, and chunky guitar glitches running alongside hypnotic clean lines, The Zenith Passage lands on the spacier, cinematic, progressive side of an older core-adjacent style, like early The Contortionist work. Rather than build to a violent and colossal conclusion, though, tracks like “Divinertia II” and “Automated Twilight” have an oscillating trajectory through ambience and subtle drama. The titular closer too hints at grandiosity, its unsubtle announcement feeling like a statement against all that came before it, yet it fades away on the tail end of a fusion-inspired solo and curiously gentle piano exit.
If it’s all a hint of more to come, then I have to wonder why The Zenith Passage didn’t simply deliver. Between the perpetual pitter-patter of small-movement grooves and delayed tension of melodic synth elements, The Zenith Passage, at least, does find a footing farther away from their more predictable roots. This footing, however, steps only part way down a path that McKinney is still uncovering. The dueling identities within this album push Datalysium to explore ideas that I’m not sure The Zenith Passage could have predicted. Though the result does not come together as a satisfyingly complete package, the more deeply composed successes point to a future where The Zenith Passage not only proudly plays its own name, but also has an album worthy of its image.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade
Websites: thezenithpassage.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/thezenithpassage
Releases Worldwide: July 21st, 2023
