As soon as I heard the vocals, I was like, hell yeah. The music feels reminiscent of early death metal—a ’90s-style strain of technical death metal with plenty of thrash influences. Upon the first listen, I could tell it would take a few trips through the album to fully get used to it. There are so many little intricacies that it can be a lot to take in at first, but that also makes it a full-on experience.

The vocals reminded me of the sheer brutality of John Tardy’s throat-ripping delivery in Obituary. The guitars are loaded with cool and intricate riffs, although they were admittedly difficult to remember and absorb during the first couple of listens. On a casual spin, the music could come across as chaotic because you never really know where it is going next. However, the album truly stands out when you pay close attention to what is happening. Once you hear the interplay between the drums, guitars and bass, it becomes less chaotic and begins to make sense in an extremely technical way.

After a few listens, the album really grew on me. The Miscreance attack is undeniably technical, with shifting time signatures, numerous grooves, and unusual scales and modes that are less common in metal. The band also incorporates instruments such as hand drums and didgeridoo, along with strange announcement-style vocals and passages that occasionally lean toward jazz fusion, including the introduction to opening track “Trait D’Union.”

In my opinion, this is tech death in a pre-Necrophagist sense. If you think about technical death metal—or simply the death metal scene—before Necrophagist, it was more about intricate grooves and brutal technicality than neoclassical precision. By combining a vintage metal atmosphere with modern songwriting and technical death metal elements, Reminiscence should appeal to a wide variety of listeners.

More than simply an old-school or modern death metal album, Reminiscence is its own beast. Fans of technical death metal and progressive metal should also find plenty to sink their teeth into. Although it can be difficult to recall specific moments when you are not actively listening, the record maintains a continuous flow from one song to the next.

The “For Fans Of” section in Miscreance’s biography is accurate. I could hear elements of bands such as Death, Sadist and Obituary throughout the music. Although I would be hard-pressed to hum one of the album’s riffs from memory, it offers several memorable vocal moments. These include the overall harsh tone, the chorus line in “A Dying Sun,” and the strange, almost announcer-like delivery that appears more frequently during the first half of the album.

The artwork for Reminiscence reflects the music perfectly. You can see the image, but it is difficult to determine exactly what you are looking at. It also carries that distinctive ’80s and ’90s style. The image reminds me slightly of the artwork for Black Sabbath’s Technical Ecstasy, although Miscreance sound considerably heavier and more progressive.

As the feedback fades, Reminiscence is something every death metal fan should check out. It is definitely an album I will personally keep in mind as a potential album of the year—and, at the very least, a top-five contender.