ECCENTRICITY

"Eccentricity" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Texas based technical/progressive death metal act Lizard Professor. The album was independently released in September 2016. Lizard Professor was formed in 2008 and released the "Offthewallogy" EP in 2010.

A label like technical/progressive death metal can mean a lot of things on today´s music scene, but in the case of the material on "Eccentricity" it means a very eclectic and highly technical form of progressive metal with the odd nod towards avant garde. I hear a lot of different influences throughout the album and I thought about the best way to describe the music, which amounts to this: If Cephalic Carnage, Into Eternity, and Shaolin Death Squad had a menage o trois, the bastard outcome would sound a bit like what the material sounds like on "Eccentricity". The instrumental part of the music is very dynamic and ranges from melodic parts to deathgrinding blast beat sections and fusion influenced technical riffs and rhythms, while the vocal part of the album is very diverse too. There are both death growls, higher pitched aggressive core tinged vocals, and clean melodic singing featured on the album.

It´s often a bit of a chaotic soundscape and not all tracks are equally memorable because they more or less sound like a lot of random musical ideas thrown together with no overall plan for a structured memorable song. So this is not music for those who prefer regular vers/chorus structures and "Eccentricity" is generally a both complex and challenging listen.

While a little more restraint and structure could have made the 9 track, 75:56 minutes long album a more accessible listen, it has other qualities which makes it a high quality release. The musicianship is often through the roof, and there are several jaw- dropping moments of technical wizardry throughout the album. The sound production is also of a relatively high quality, so if you can look past a couple of compositional flaws (in terms of lack of memorable melodies and hooks), "Eccentricity" is a very interesting release. A full 4 star (80%) rating is maybe slightly too much considering the quality of the compositions, but a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn´t completely wrong.