By Greg Pratt

Kansas-based tech-death crew ORIGIN are certainly one of the leaders of the new guard of brutal technical death metal, and with their new disc, Entity, the band has actually managed to up the ante on several levels: next-level drumming, ridiculous tech-death guitar work, and an increased focus on songwriting. All this, with a new vocalist to boot.

Jason Keyser (ex-SKINLESS) is now behind the mic for the band, but he wasn’t on the album, which is the band’s fifth. Keyser is currently touring with Origin and is a full-on member, but for the recording of Entity, it was bassist Mike Flores and guitarist Paul Ryan handling vocals.

“Jason is performing the vocals live flawlessly,” says Ryan. “I’m looking forward to seeing what he has to offer on the next album. It was definitely a new challenge as Mike and I haven’t written lyrics in quite some time, other than a couple phrases here and there. We have a whole new respect for vocalists and lyricists now.”

Respect: something that musicians have for Origin, no doubt. The band has long been touted as one of technical death’s finest, and Entity manages to simultaneously push the boundaries of technicality and keep things memorable and song-based (well… as much as things can be song-based in such a lunatic fringe musical environment).

“I, personally, am more interested in song composition and structure, rather than just guitar techniques,” says Ryan. “It’s nice to be recognized as a competent guitarist, but it’s more important that the band creates good songs that people can grind out on. Finding a balance is a lot like making food. Too much of this or too little of that can ruin an already good product. The change in song structure has developed by working with John [Longstreth, drummer] and Mike playing live over the last few years and seeing what makes people move to the music.”

The disc is the band’s first for Nuclear Blast after a long stint with Relapse. Ryan says the band is happy with the label arrangement so far, adding that having the budget to have a better mix really helped out with the album’s sound.

“Relapse didn’t seem interested in resigning us and it seemed to us as they have changed direction on what music they are focusing on,” he says. “As far as Nuclear Blast goes, it’s the beginning of the relationship and as of now I feel both sides are happy, which is good.”

But it doesn’t come down to labels, production sounds, or even, in the grand scheme of the Origin machine, member changes. For Ryan, cliché as it sounds, it’s all about the tunes.

“Well, I was playing music when no one was listening and I’m sure I’ll still be doing music when no one cares about it anymore,” he says, “or I—or we—aren’t physically able to play these songs anymore. I hope to continue to play music for life. If I can’t, I don’t know what the future holds.”