Kiesal Guitars Presents
TECH TREK IV
ARCHSPIRE + VIRVUM (w/ Inferi and Wormhole):
05/09: Seattle, WA @ El Corazon (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/10: Portland, OR @ Twilight Cafe & Bar (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/11: Oakland, CA @ Metro Opera House (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/12: West Hollywood, CA @ Whiskey-A-Go-Go (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/13: San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick (TICKETS)
05/14: Mesa, AZ @ Club Red (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/15: El Paso, TX @ Rockhouse Bar & Grill (EVENT LINK) **Tix available @ door D.O.S.
05/16: Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Bar & Grill (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/17: Austin, TX @ Come And Take It Live! (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/18: Corpus Christi, TX @ Boozers Rock Bar (TICKETS)
05/19: New Orleans, LA @ Santos **Tix TBA**
05/20: Orlando, FL @ The Haven (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/21: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Purgatory) (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/22: Spartanburg, SC @ Ground Zero (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/23: Philadelphia, PA @ Voltage Lounge (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/24: Brooklyn, NY @ The Kingsland (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/25: Boston, MA @ Once Ballroom (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/26: Erie, PA @ Basement Transmissions (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/27: Detroit, MI @ Sanctuary (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/28: Louisville, KY @ The Tiger Room (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/29: Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/30: St. Louis, MO @ Firebird (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
05/31: Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room (TICKETS)
06/01: Denver, CO @ Roxy Theater (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
06/03: Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
06/04: Boise, ID @ The Shredder (TICKETS // EVENT LINK)
Additionally, ARCHSPIRE have recently made both national and international headlines for being the perfect musical template for the creation of Artificially Intelligent death metal.
Dadabots is special artificial intelligent (AI) software that creates music. The software, developed by Berkley College of Music graduates Zack Zukowski and CJ Carr, is built upon a “recurrent neural network” that receives data and then uses it to interpret musical sequences on its own. Simply stated, the software teaches itself how to compose music based on the work of an existing band as its data-set.
After several failed attempts at creating stable, listenable death metal, the creators turned to the music of ARCHSPIRE, which ended up being the perfect template to generating metal tunes via artificial intelligence.
“The neural net we used listened to ‘Relentless Mutation’ over and over again,” explains Zukowski. “All raw audio, no tabs, no midi. It generates what it thinks it hears and tunes itself until it begins to intimate the sounds from the original album. After generating, it randomly stitches the audios together, refills the buffer, and streams it with ffmpeg. Repeat.”
He continues, “The remarkable part is the high quality-to-shit ratio. We tried this with 100 albums and found that Archspire’s music made for the most interesting bot. Zero curation was necessary. Everything it generates sounds good to us. You’re hearing everything it makes. Our theory is the faster the blast beats, the more stable the net. Archspire is absurdly fast – they are basically machines. So far, we haven’t found anything that works better.”
ARCHSPIRE adds, “We’ve been hearing about this ‘AI that’s trained on Archspire writing death metal’ over the past few weeks. Well, here’s the thing: We actually aren’t surprised about this. We’ve been utilizing very similar technology to write our music this entire time. The program we’ve been using? It’s called T.O.B.I. It stands for:
Technically
Outrageous
Boner
Inducer
“Tobi has been part of our writing process since 2009, and while you may notice that he takes on a physical form as guitarist in the band, rest assured under those tight fitting clothes, he’s more machine than man.”
To hear some of the AI-generated albums that Dadabots have produced, visit their YOUTUBE and OFFICIAL BANDCAMP. More on the project can be read in a document the researchers’ produced in 2017 at THIS LOCATION.
ABOUT ARCHSPIRE:
Welcome to first class technical death metal madness. Machine gun vocals rattle remorselessly over a furious flurry of arpeggios, scales, and everything else that the two string wizards of ARCHSPIRE can pick at break-finger speed out their guitars. If this sounds hardly human at the level of technical execution, the Gatling-style hyper-drumming pushing these monstrous compositions forward is adding to the alien impression. It cannot even be a question that the Canadians have outdone themselves with their third full-length, ‘Relentless Mutation,’ which was nominated for a JUNO-award in 2018.
This album is simply insane in a most excellent way. The level of musicianship that ARCHSPIRE offer, will leave even tech death fans drooling. Yet the outfit from Vancouver in British Columbia is bringing an important extra to the table, the rare ability to write great songs. ‘Relentless Mutation’ is not just another compilation of outstanding musicianship, but the songs come with recognisable patterns that make sense in the greater conceptual framework of the album. And a clever use of contrasts leaves moments of clarity for the listener to take a breath and get ready for the next assault. ARCHSPIRE exploded onto the scene in the year 2009 – after an earlier prelude under the moniker DEFENESTRATED. The band grew out of the rich Canadian scene for technical extremes that includes illustrious names such as GORGUTS or BEYOND CREATION. Yet ARCHSPIRE set out to take the sound to the next level from the start as their debut album ‘All Shall Align’ (2011) made clear, which immediately received critical comparison with the scene’s spearheads like OBSCURA.
The band developed a lyrical concept revolving around a dystopian science fiction universe, which was expanded on their sophomore full-length, ‘The Lucid Collective’ (2014) that witnessed ARCHSPIRE gaining widespread international recognition as one of the hottest names within the tech death community and beyond.
With ‘Relentless Mutation’, the Canadians are pushing the limits of their genre even further than before on all levels. ARCHSPIRE come crushing like a whirlwind to free ears and minds from pre-conceived notions about technical death metal. Time to leave your shelter and face the tempest. This is the future.
The cover of ‘Relentless Mutation’ has been painted by renowned artist Eliran Kantor already well-known in the metal world for his works for TESTAMENT, ATHEIST, and HATE ETERNAL among others.
ABOUT VIRVUM:
When a relatively unknown Swiss band released their debut album ‘Illuminance’ in 2016, only insiders suspected the massive impact it would stir. Yet it was on the strength of this release that VIRVUM were offered to sign on Season of Mist. Now their new home is reissuing ‘Illuminance’, which is to be available on vinyl for the first time.
VIRVUM were founded by childhood friends in 2007 and since then the aspiring and hard-working musicians continuously fine-tuned and honed the tracks of their first full-length to match their burgeoning skills.
VIRVUM first got noticed when guitarist and main songwriter Nic Gruhn happily took the offer to join a European tour with California’s progressive death metal pioneers FALLUJAH while also opening for such renowned bands as SUFFOCATION and CEPHALIC CARNAGE in 2013. On the return of their guitarist, VIRVUM immediately set out to perform as many shows as possible in order to establish the band in Europe.
In 2015, a first single entitled ‘Internal Howl’ attracted immediate attention and, that same year, VIRVUM were picked to internationally support big names such as DYING FETUS, FLESHGOD APOCALPYSE, and DEFEATED SANITY among others.
In advance of their self-released debut full-length, VIRVUM received a massive response for the song premieres of “Ad Rigorem” and title track in 2016, while the album was highly acclaimed by critics and fans alike.
With their professional attitude, the exceptional technical prowess of each individual musician, and last but never least the outstanding collective songwriting skills, the Swiss are now ready for the next step. While VIRVUM create a new monstrous record in studio, their amazing debut ‘Illuminance’ is made available again.
Line-up
Bryan Berger: vocals
Nic Gruhn: guitars
Tobias Koelman: guitars
Diego Morenzoni: drums
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