UMUR
Side Effects Expected is the debut full-length studio album by German technical death metal act Centaurus-A. The album was released in March 2009. Side Effects Expected was recorded, mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen in Hansen Studio, Denmark.
Centaurus-A play a technically challenging style of death metal with brilliant musicianship on Side Effects Expected. The music borders progressive death metal at times, but you should never fear a pretentious or pompeous sound. This album is powerful above all. The band never sacrifice power over technical playing and that´s honourable in my book. I enjoy technical and progressive music but almost never if it´s on the expence of power. Side Effects Expected is a class example of how to master that delicate balance between technical/ progressive ideas and death metal power. Acts like Obscura, Necrophagist and Death come to mind here. Most songs on the album are played in a pretty fast pace. Lightspeed riffing and drumming, time signature- and tempo changes, growling vocals and some pretty melodic parts too which is usually where the guitarists play solos. While the pace is mostly fast a song like the powerful mid-paced and very heavy Arson proves that Centaurus-A are more than capable of churning out slower tunes too.
The production by Jacob Hansen is professional and powerful. It suits the music perfectly. One of his best productions IMO.
Side Effects Expected is an excellent debut album by Centaurus-A and if you´re interested in technical death metal with variation ( this is not one of those brutal technical death metal albums that tend to be a little too one-dimensional. At least for my taste) this one is highly recommendable. A 4 star rating is more than deserved. I hadn´t heard much about this band before I discovered them by chance when reading a review of Side Effects Expected, but they definitely deserve a lot of attention.