Archspire

About Archspire

Archspire formed in Vancouver in 2007, back when technical death metal was already pretty extreme but hadn't quite reached the speeds these guys would eventually hit. The band built their approach around precision that borders on ridiculous—guitarists Dean Lamb and Tobi Morelli play riffs that sound like someone fed a death metal album into a computer and clicked "double speed," while drummer Spencer Prewett somehow keeps up with blast beats that make other extreme drummers look like they're playing ballads.

Their early work got them noticed in underground circles, but 2011's "All Shall Align" put them on the map for people who care about technical proficiency in death metal. It showed what they were going for: impossibly fast riffing, complex song structures, and vocalist Oliver Rae Aleron delivering lyrics at a pace that shouldn't be physically possible. If you've heard "Archspire" and "that guy who raps in death metal" in the same sentence, that's him.

They followed up with "The Lucid Collective" in 2014, which refined everything and made them legitimate contenders in tech death. But 2017's "Relentless Mutation" was the one that really landed. Songs like "Involuntary Doppelgänger" and "A Dark Horizontal" became their calling cards—the kind of tracks that make musicians quit or practice harder, depending on temperament. The album found a wider audience than most extreme metal gets, partly because the band's technical ability crossed over into "okay this is objectively impressive" territory that appeals beyond just death metal purists.

bassist Jared Smith rounds out the lineup, holding down low-end duties that might get overlooked given how much is happening in the upper registers, but the songs wouldn't work without that foundation. Their live show became its own thing too—watching them pull off this material in person has a circus act quality, except everyone involved looks completely calm about it.

"Bleed the Future" dropped in 2021 and somehow they got faster. "Drone Corpse Aviator" and "Golden Mouth of Ruin" continued their tradition of song titles that sound like sci-fi body horror and music that matches. The album hit number 4 on the Billboard Hard Rock chart, which is unusual for something this extreme. They're not crossover in the traditional sense—they didn't soften anything—but technical death metal has a wider audience now than it used to, and Archspire benefits from that.

They've spent the last few years touring pretty heavily, playing festivals where they're often the most technical band on the bill by a significant margin. They're in that space where they're too extreme for casual metal fans but too accomplished for anyone to dismiss. No word on new material yet, but given their trajectory, whenever it arrives it'll probably be even faster, which seems impossible but that's kind of their whole deal.

Archspire live is exactly as unrelenting as their records. The crowd is locked in, physically responding to sudden tempo shifts and polyrhythmic breakdowns. Sweat-drenched sets where the band's precision never falters despite the obvious physical toll. Mosh pits form and collapse as riffs demand attention.

Known for Relentless Mutation, The Lucid Collective, Involuntary Doppelgänger, Bleed the Future, Abandon the Linear

See Archspire Live