If you don’t know who Counteractt is don’t sleep any longer! Hailing from Spain these dudes dropped Universal Sadness and since then I cannot stop playing it. The album was the band’s first professional album, having to overcome obstacles with Covid and line up changes until landing Luis Silva as the new vocalist, the album was re-recorded twice because the boys were not okay with it yet so that alone explains the work ethic of these guys and the attention to detail you can expect. After the release, Counteractt was expecting to tour with some big name bands but due to Covid and lockdowns the bands plans were limited but they overcame them and made sure they finished the album to their standards, Featuring Alan Grnja (distant) and Ricky Lee Roper (Osiah) this nine track album is sure to satisfy your tech death itch with Nocturnal Pollutions and Latheratus being two of my personal favorites the whole album start to finish is brutal.
Counteractt originally started in 2015 and released an EP and also toured with bands like Anelepsy, malevolence, Ingested, and Cannibal Grandpa (known now as Bonecarver) but back then they went for a more djent sound, skip ahead two years and the band decided they wanted to try something different, in 2019 with Luis Silva on the mic the band went more brutal/tech death even throwing in some darkness to the mix along with some symphonic moments.
I had the pleasure of talking to Luis the other day and my main question was “What’s next for Counteractt?” in which he responded “I think that our next material (which we are working on at the moment) is the most mature and professional work we ever did. We are going on the universal sadness direction but with a little spice of other influences we had during the last two years. Expect darkness, malefic riffs, tech stuff , dark atmospheres and a lot of BPM’s”. With a heavy release from 2020 and new material being in the works this is one band you do not want to miss out on when they come up. You can grab a copy of universal sadness at https://counteracttband.bigcartel.com/ the cover art is basically what Luis Silva sounds like if that makes sense, simply put its brutal as hell. Fun fact Luis actually attended a Counteractt show in 2019 before he joined the band so he has been on both sides of the fence which is pretty cool. Hope you take a listen and enjoy as much as I have.
Overall Score: 10/10
Review by Ryan Arcicovich
