Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Going into album number three, Replacire had their duck boats all in a row. The Bostonians were fresh off a short run supporting their kindred spirits Exist. With their new lineup squarely in place, the tech-death band were all set to re-enter their mastermind’s studio come March 2020.

Of course, the pandemic soon laid waste to Replacire’s well-laid plans. As the title suggests, nothing about the band’s new album came easy. But after countless Zoom calls, grueling 12-hour recording sessions, sleep paralysis and one near trip to the hospital, The Center That Cannot Hold flexes all of their might. 

The Center That Cannot Hold comes out June 21, 2024 on Season of Mist. 

Order & Stream: https://orcd.co/replacirethecenterthatcannotholdpresave

Take a closer look at their name and it’s clear why Replacire has become synonymous with Eric Alper. After all, Alper is their solo original member, having started the band all the way back in 2009 as a student at Berklee College of Music.  

When he’s not producing other people’s records, Alper is sculpting his own physique as a competitive body builder. But during the sessions for The Center That Cannot Hold, he was weighed down by writer’s block.

“I was stressed out from just trying to keep my head above water”, Alper says. “When the pandemic shut everything down, I had to sell our tour van and give up our rehearsal space just to keep my finances together. There were a lot of writing sessions where all I could manage to do was hum a few chords”. 

Fortunately, help was close by. Replacire’s lineup boasts three fellow Berklee grads. Alper might’ve managed to come up with the riff that chisels into the title track like a chainsaw through a hunk of granite, but Kee Po Hock fleshes out the head banging with zippy melodic leads and fret bends that sound as nerve-wracked as a malfunctioning cyborg. It’s the rhythm section though that takes the reins on “The Center That Cannot Hold”. Joey Feretti starts off fully aslant with harsh syncopated thwacks, only for bassist Zak Baskin to dunk the song’s middle passage into a jazzy, unfettered breakdown.

James Dorton is no slouch, either. The former Black Crown Initiate vocalist has also filled in on tour for Ne Obliviscaris. Aside from his massive stage presence, Dorton is recognized amongst metalheads of all shapes and sizes for his annunciation. You can still make out every third word on “The Center That Cannot Hold”, but he holds absolutely nothing back.

“I’ve been grey in my headspace”, he growls with enough unclenched rage to bite through his tongue. “Just leave me bleeding in the dirt”. Funny enough, Alper wanted “The Center That Cannot Hold” to scratch the same desperate itch as Corey Taylor’s vocals on Slipknot’s self-titled LP. Dorton took that inspiration to heart, too. When the song suddenly cuts out with a muffled thump, you might think that’s his body hitting the floor instead of the mic.    

“James recorded the vocals for this song in one full take, with no stops, over and over, until we got it right” Alper says. “The next morning, he woke up shaking uncontrollably and his face was so pale. He came back to life after we got some fluids into him, but for a moment, I was worried that he needed to go to the hospital”

“The Center That Cannot Hold was a bitch to make”, Alper continues. “There were plenty of days when I doubted whether we would ever finish this album. But I’m glad we did. It was worth it, especially when you end up with songs that are this chaotic and heavy”. 

Tracklist
1. Bloody Tongued And Screaming (4:26)
2. The Center That Cannot Hold (3:05) [LISTEN]
3. Living Hell (2:58)
4. A Fine Manipulation (4:21)
5. The Helix Unravels (3:02)
6. Drag Yourself Along The Earth (3:39)
7. Inglorious Impunity (3:32)
8. The Ghost In The Mirror (3:57)
9. Hoard The Trauma Like Wealth (4:20)
10. Transfixed On The Work (3:28)
11. Uncontrolled And Unfulfilled (6:41)
Total runtime: 43:36

When Replacire started thinking about their third album, they gravitated around a simple idea. Write some caveman riffs to feed the mosh pit the next time they went out on tour. Of course, like any good technical death metal band that’s worth its weight in colored sands, these whiz kids deviated from their initial thought pattern. It wasn’t easy. Heck, they ended up crawling down a seven-year rabbit hole. But on The Center That Cannot Hold, the Boston band flex all their muscles 

“This was a grueling process”, says guitarist Eric Alper. “But it was worth it in the end”.  

On the surface, Replacire starts and ends with Alper. After all, the band is just his name spelled backward. Alper is a competitive bodybuilder with a mean and lean right rhythm hand, but don’t let those beefy credentials fool you. When it comes to the studio, his brain does all the heavy lifting. By day, Alper produces music for other artists, as well as TV and movies. He’s a proud alumnus  of Berklee College of Music, which is where he formed Replacire with four classmates back in 2009.   

Using the money that they savvily raised on Kickstarter, Replacire self-released their debut album by the end of 2012. A hybrid of thrash, prog and death metal, The Human Burden punched through the underground like a cyborg’s fist. “This is what would have happened if Chuck Schuldiner were still alive today and mixed up with the likes of Obscura and Opeth at the same time”, Metal Injection gushed. After tours with Hate Eternal and Beyond Creation and an unintentional private showcase for a certain label rep, Replacire signed with Season of Mist in 2016. The band wasted no time before making a quick first impression. While still head-spinning, their second album landed with the decisive force of a first-round knockout.    

“This group has set the tone for modern, rhythmically-centered death metal”, proclaimed Loudwire, who named them one of the top 5 bands amongst the next generation of death metal. “It’s time to wake up and hop aboard Replacire’s train”.    

Indeed, Replacire were chugging along with a full head of steam. But there’s a reason why their new album is called The Center That Cannot Hold. After all, this is extreme metal. Things were bound to go flying off the rails at some point. Before they could even step out on their next headlining tour, the band’s lineup completely turned over. While their momentum stalled, Alper went searching for replacements.  

Luckily, he didn’t have to go any further than his old stomping grounds. Alper linked up with Zak Baskin, who had filled in on bass for parts of Do Not Deviate. Alper then reconnected with Kee Poh Hock, a guitar whiz who’d lived with Baskin when all three were students at Berklee. Even though he graduated a few classes after them, Joey Feretti was so advanced behind the drum kit that he became Alper’s roommate. With mighty vocalist James Dorton joining fresh off Black Crown Initiate’s breakout, the new-and-improved Replacire were all set to hit Alper’s Ugly Duck Studio come March of 2020.  

No one needs to be reminded of what happened next. Replacire  always grind in the studio, taking their sweet time to fine tune every technical detail down to the last seventh string. “It never ceases to amaze me the way other metal bands just churn stuff out”, Alper says. “It doesn’t come easy for us. So many hours go into so few seconds of music”. But when the pandemic shut the world down, writing slowed to a crawl amidst the endless slog of Zoom sessions. With live music shut down for the foreseeable future, suddenly, their well-laid plan for pumping out an album of crowd killers seemed more and more like a flimsy proposition. To stay afloat, Alper sold the band’s van and moved out of their rehearsal space.  

“Everything that I had built to support the band was falling apart”, Alper says.  

The mounting stress would’ve left a lesser band bloody-tongued and screaming. But despite being stuck inside this perfect shit storm, Replacire banged their heads together and pushed through. “Living Hell” was inspired by a nasty spell of sleep paralysis that Dorton suffered after witnessing a traumatic event. “In the wake of suicide”, he groans, shrouded by eerie pangs of distortion. Alper was battling his own bouts with anxiety and depression that were brought on by a rather severe case of writer’s block, but even when all he could stand to do was lay on the couch while humming through a half-finished riff, Poh Hock would pick up his Strandberg and zip past the finish line. “The Helix Unravels” could twist all of Mensa into a pretzel with its interlocked chugs and squealing fret bends. 

The Center That Cannot Hold is crammed full of mind-bending tech-death workouts. Baskin’s unfettered groove serves as the perfect springboard for another transcendent Hock solo halfway through “Hoard the Trauma Like Wealth”, though his reverberated bass echoes like a sea of voices trapped at the bottom of a well on “The Ghost in the Mirror”. The title track unspools under Feretti’s syncopated snare hits and precision blasting, though Alper was the real drill sergeant. “I wanted the vocals to sound like they do on Slipknot’s self-titled album, where Corey is gasping for air”. Dorton took the inspiration to heart, running through full takes, with no stops, for hours on end. Heck, his vocal chords were so tattered and torn that he narrowly avoided a trip to the hospital.  

“We poured all of our blood, sweat and tears into this album”, Alper says. “It took years off my life. There were plenty of times where I wanted to quit. But I’m glad we didn’t, because this is our best album. Everything from the overall production down to the lead guitar parts took a step up. The tone is more serious  The songs are still techy buy they’re also a lot heavier. I’m proud of us”.  

On The Center That Cannot Hold, Replacire stand stronger than ever.   

Line-up
Eric Alper – Guitars
James Dorton – Vocals
Kee Poh Hock – Guitar
Zak Baskin – Bass
Joey Ferretti – Drums

Recording Studio
Ugly Duck Studios

Production Credits
Eric Alper – Producer & Sound Engineer
Jens Bogren – Mixing & Mastering Studio Engineer (Fascination Street Studios)

Biography by Will Yarbrough

Bandcamp: http://replacire.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Replacire
Instagram: https://instagram.com/replacire
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/replacire
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Replacire
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Replacire/videos
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/replacire/576863051
Deezer: https://deezer.page.link/6prhUUWzLoxLRVhK8
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0t8nNth1Y9dRxGoiHHSSoa