Some bands take time to find their identity by releasing multiple demos and EPs before a proper full-length and others are like Continuum. The California-based technical death metal band brought their debut album, The Hypothesis, into existence in 2015. This year, they’ll unleash their second album, Designed Obsolescence, their first release in four years.
It’s not out until late February, but Decibel has an exclusive stream of “Theorem” from the album. Crushingly heavy and executed with machinelike precision, “Theorem” makes it obvious that Continuum aren’t experiencing any sophomore slump.
“The album title Designed Obsolescence comes from the term ‘planned obsolescence,’ which refers to a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so it will become obsolete (that is, unfashionable or no longer functional) after a certain period of time,” Continuum tell Decibel regarding their new album. “That idea is, in the tradition of our debut album The Hypothesis, applied to a science-fiction background in which humans are commingled with machine elements and designed to live, function and then die out accordingly. This doubles as an analogy for modern civilization in which people are born, grow up, work, retire and die according to what is deemed to be normal and expected of them, often without question or opposition. It’s an age-old storytelling device used to persuade people to break out of the scheduled and mundane and view the world in a less bleak perspective, hopefully in our sophomore release we can do the same.”
To hear the rest of Continuum’s sci-fi nightmare, head to the Unique Leader store to order. Designed Obsolescence is out on February 22.
