Gigan - Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus

Boring, tiresome, homogenous... are all words I would never use to describe this album.

This was my first time hearing anything from Gigan. I'll be honest—I was sort of expecting to hear something in the same vein as most other death metal releases as of late. Was I wrong.

The album opener, Trans-Dimensional Crossing of the Alta-Tenius, is an atmospheric, other-worldly, nearly 8-minute intro to an album that goes in so many unexpected directions, yet somehow still accomplishes a cohesive sound. Don’t confuse this for an album with tracks that all sound the same—you know what I mean; where you’re bored after the third track. The technical abilities of this death metal trio from Chicago, Illinois are apparent from the first face-melting riff to the last guttural scream on the final track.

At times, the album's intensity makes you feel like your heart is going 100 miles a minute. Then, a tempo change takes the track in a totally different direction—it’s like the best jazz musicians in the world decided to say "fuck it" and started a death metal band.

As each track winds through a well-constructed soundscape, it becomes an impressively thought-out collection of instruments meshed into a type of chaos that feels like it was meant to drive you mad, yet still keeps you sane enough to complete the entire experience that’s just been presented to you.

Track 3, Square Wave Subversion, is like madness captured on a track. There’s an underlying digital synth that you think you hear on a first listen, but it becomes more prominent with each subsequent listen. The sound becomes an anchor for the song that, if missing, would result in an entirely different track—but you can only guess at this, knowing there’s really no way to know for sure. Here lies some of the madness I’m speaking of in this album.

There are breaks in some tracks where the atmospheric sounds transport you to another dimension, as if the music is lifting your spirit out of your body and sending you on a journey through time and space. There were moments where I just closed my eyes and took in everything I was hearing, layer upon layer of music creating more than just sound; creating an experience.

I continue to call this death metal throughout this review, but it should be apparent at this point that what we’re really talking about here is a technical death metal band, possibly even what I would consider a progressive death metal band.

I have to admit, mentioning jazz in this review—I’m not a jazz fan. Jazz always just felt like there was no structure, and until this album, I was someone who felt that structure was a must-have in music.

Not only is this one of my favorite death metal albums of 2024, but it might also lead me to check out some jazz as a possible influence on my own music.

If I had to compare this to another band to give you a reference point of “listeners of...,” I would say this is in the realm of Blood Incantation but with a much heavier sound.

I am giving Gigan - Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus a definitely must listen rating.