Review of Mapmaker - "Automation"

Geoff Teach
Jan 8, 2015
2 min read

INDEPENDENT INSANITY

By: Geoff Teach

There are truly just not enough hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, and months in a year. If I had had more time to listen to music last month, my “Top 25 Metal Albums of 2014” may have looked a little different. Early in December of 2014, an album was released that I was aware of, but sadly, I only had a chance to lightly skim it with my ears. But now that another month has passed and I have had the opportunity to dive fully and forcefully into “Automation” by Indianapolis-based Mapmaker, I realize that I wish I would’ve been able to do so much sooner. But while I can’t go back and change what is already done, I figure the very least I can do now is tell you, my beloved readers, all about this incredible effort.

Drenched in technical prowess, Mapmaker’s “Automation” was capably recorded and produced at Westward Recordings in Muncie, Indiana. All eleven songs are strung together seamlessly, giving the album a conceptual feel that comes across as contemplative and mature, with each song still maintaining its own unique feel and tone. Sounding often like a perfect influential balance of early Contortionist, Between The Buried and Me, and Fallujah, Mapmaker paint a brutally beautiful musical picture by using broad strokes of tech death vocals, chugging riffage, soulful guitar solos and clean singing, brilliant piano work and drumming, and dynamic changes in mood.

My favorite cuts on “Automation” include the opener, “Genesis”, as well as other gems such as “Juxtaposition”, “Ascension”, and “Extension”. However, no other song on the album fully encapsulates the band’s skills at musical composition and emotional oscillation like the closing title-track, “Automation”. Clocking in at over twenty minutes, “Automation” runs the progressive tech death gamut, and nothing is left to spare. All of Mapmaker’s many talents are on full display during this final, epic opus.

Consequently, Mapmaker’s “Automation” is not only fully worth listening to from start to finish, but it has also put a seed of doubt into the mind of your humble music critic. You see, if I had had more time to listen to this fantastic album, there is no doubt in my mind that it would’ve made my “Top 25 Metal Albums of 2014”. But alas, what's done is done, and there can be no going back on what has already been written. But know this, my cherished friends and neighbors: Mapmaker’s “Automation” is as solid of a release as any that made my Top 10 in 2014. Period, exclamation point.

Keep It Metal! \m/

To check out “Juxtaposition” and “Ascension” off of “Automation”, just press play below!