01. Entity02. Consecrate Phenomenon03. Dimension04. Twilight Tradition05. Abstract06. Complexity Parallels07. Subtraction08. VulturesTo the untrained ear, death metal may not seem like a genre blessed with endless possibilities. But bands like HIERARCHIES think differently. Bands like this yawn, stretch and idly flex their creative muscles, producing music that teeters precariously and exhilaratingly on the edge of insanity, leaving unprepared listeners twitching in a pile of their own chunky drool.”Hierarchies” is a statement of intent, but not one directed at the outside world. Instead, this newly formed head-wrecking crew have dismantled templates and built their own world of fiendish intricacy and terminal, id-popping wrongness. Songs slither by like horrified hallucinations belched up from the darkest depths of some unfathomable, anti-cosmic void, but spat out through a cracked but resplendent prism of nefarious, psychedelic mischief. Twisted, unhinged and yet performed with dizzying levels of technicality, these songs will creep up on you, slit your throat and then vanish like dust in a breeze. It might even make more sensitive listeners feel a bit queasy. Either way, this is one of the most perverse and surreal death metal albums in recent memory. Fans of GORGUTS, PYRRHON and ARTIFICIAL BRAIN will at least recognize some of what HIERARCHIES are peddling, but even by the standards set by those bands, this is a debut album that threatens to have a ruinous effect on anyone that isn’t truly ready for it.With willfully obtuse and confounding arrangements and several moments that make no sense whatsoever, “Hierarchies” is a challenging piece of work. It is also relentlessly fascinating and so gleefully bizarre that even the less imaginative will be swept away. “Entity” is a profoundly weird way to say hello, but it provides a great deal of information on the madness to come. Seven minutes of brittle, spiraling cacophony, it changes tempo and tone multiple times without ever slipping from HIERARCHIES’ artful grasp. It churns like the most potent noise rock, but flails and slices like the most abrasive, avant-garde black metal, with bursts of ultra-angular death metal providing the structural substance that blearily binds it all together. “Consecrate Phenomenon” repeats the trick, with spiky syncopation that morphs into tooth-shattering blastbeats, before a curious concoction of post-punk and acid rock turns the temperature to below zero. The riveting chemistry that these three lunatics are enjoying here is on full display during “Dimension”: a blistering riposte to reality that rips along at an insane speed, but that also contains deranged, melodic multitudes and riffs that might be considered catchy in a less terrifying, sanity-threatening environment.It is admirable that HIERARCHIES have opted for a production that puts their skilled musicianship in the spotlight, without burying it under a ton of opaque effects and self-conscious rawness. “Twilight Tradition” is the most easily digestible song here: a melancholy but still mad-as-fuck dirge that owes as much to BAUHAUS and VOIVOD as it does to PORTAL and ULCERATE, it benefits hugely from the way guitarist Nicholas Turner, bassist Anthony Wheeler and drummer Jared Moran have all been allowed their own space along the deathly sonic spectrum. No matter how weird “Hierarchies” gets, it is always recognizable as the work of a trio of eccentric virtuosos, happily lost in a defiantly non-conformist world of their own design. The synapse-snapping apex of “Complex Parallels” sums it all up. Sometimes sounding like three songs happening at once and sometimes coalescing into a joyous but incomprehensible barrage of crazed ideas, it has an almost improvisatory feel, as HIERARCHIES revel in absolute musical freedom, while the gaping maw of some nightmarish, pan-dimensional colossus looms before them. Like I say, it’s a weird fucking record.[embedded content]