Paul Wardingham – Assimilate Regenerate (2011)

It’s hard for me on a personal level to get into bands that I don’t already love nowadays. The itching for more music from my favorite bands triumphs scouring the interweb for a new band that will probably get a couple listens. There are very few new bands I’ve discovered in the past year or so that are getting frequent listens, so when I stumbled upon guitar wizard Paul Wardingham (whose career is seemingly nonexistent in the big picture) and his solo project going by the same name, I had zero intentions on expecting his debut, Assimilate Regenerate, to be good beyond a couple listens. Especially for a shreddy instrumental album. Lo and behold, here I am listening to it on repeat. All 60 minutes of it.

If a giant correlation could be drawn to one band in the music industry, it would be melo-death giants Scar Symmetry, mostly their Holographic Universe release. The inspiration and similarity is clear as day here: futuristic synths, chunky death metal riffs rotating between soaring cosmic leads/solos and varying levels of aggression, harmony and chaos. The difference here is that Paul Wardingham doesn’t need vocals as a fallback for sub par musicianship or blazing fret masturbation to mend abysmal writing. All the mechanical skill is here in its purest form, ready to be digested for many, many listens. Toss all cheap gimmicks out the window as well becauseAssimilate Regenerate uses its well-placed synths (though sounding sometimes like a direct copy of Holographic Universe‘s synths) to add depth and character to each song, further evoking the style and theme of the album, rather than a cover up for sloppy or unimpressive playing.

01. Assimilate Regenerate
02. Futureshock
03. Ghost In The Machine
04. Brain Interactive Construct
05. Fields Of Utopia
06. Enter The Metaverse
07. Mindwarp
08. Clones
09. Cyber Warfare
10. Orbital Decay
11. Black Hole Device

320k
136mb
MP3
Instrumental Progressive Metal
UK

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