CLOCKWORK SKY

"Clockwork Sky" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish technical extreme metal act Terminal Function. The album was released through Willowtip Records in September 2015. Terminal Function was formed in 1998 and released several demos before releasing their debut full-length studio album "Measuring The Abstract" in 2008. So it´s been 7 years between albums, which even in this day and age is a pretty long recording break. There´s been one lineup change since the debut as bassist Lars Söderberg has left the band. Guitarist Stefan Aronsson handles the bass on "Clockwork Sky".

The music on the album is technical extreme metal strongly influenced by fellow countrymen Meshuggah. At times to the point of "Clockwork Sky" being what I would characterize as a worship release. Thankfully Terminal Function do incorporate other elements too, that seperates them from their more famous countrymen, but there are overall more similarities than differences. Some of the differences include occasional use of clean vocals, keyboards, and the occasional use of more regular rhythms and riffs played in conventional time signatures. The similarities are heavy downtuned riffs and rhythms played in odd time signatures, relatively one-dimensional raw shouting vocals, and fusion/jazz oriented guitar solos.

The material on the 11 track, 40:41 minutes long album is generally well written and relatively catchy although it´s not necessarily memorable in the long run. The musicianship is on a high level on all posts, and it´s hard not to be impressed by what these guys play. They may not compose the most original sounding material, but they sure can play. The sound production is raw, powerful, and suits the music, so upon conclusion there are many positive things to say about "Clockwork Sky". The lack of an original style and a very obvious clone factor are negatives that drag my rating down though, and in the end a 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted. If you are more forgiving than I am regarding the high clone factor, you can put another half star on top of that.