After several failed attempts at creating ai-generated listenable death metal, the creators of DATABOTS turned to the music of ARCHSPIRE, which ended up being the perfect template to generating metal tunes via artificial intelligence.
Dadabots is special artificial intelligent (AI) software that creates music. The software, developed by Berkley College of Music graduates Zack Zukowski and CJ Carr, is built upon a “recurrent neural network” that receives data and then uses it to interpret musical sequences on its own. Simply stated, the software teaches itself how to compose music based on the work of an existing band as its data-set.
DATABOTS developer Zukiwski explains: “The neural net we used listened to ‘Relentless Mutation’ over and over again. All raw audio, no tabs, no midi. It generates what it thinks it hears and tunes itself until it begins to intimate the sounds from the original album. After generating, it randomly stitches the audios together, refills the buffer, and streams it with ffmpeg. Repeat.”
He continues: “The remarkable part is the high quality-to-shit ratio. We tried this with 100 albums and found that Archspire’s music made for the most interesting bot. Zero curation was necessary. Everything it generates sounds good to us. You’re hearing everything it makes. Our theory is the faster the blast beats, the more stable the net. Archspire is absurdly fast – they are basically machines. So far, we haven’t found anything that works better.”
You can now listen to the ai-generated live stream on YouTube here!
24/7, to infinity….
ARCHSPIRE comments: “We’ve been hearing about this ‘AI that’s trained on Archspire writing death metal’ over the past few weeks. Well, here’s the thing: We actually aren’t surprised about this. We’ve been utilizing very similar technology to write our music this entire time. The program we’ve been using? It’s called T.O.B.I. It stands for:
Technically
Outrageous
Boner
Inducer
Tobi has been part of our writing process since 2009, and while you may notice that he takes on a physical form as guitarist in the band, rest assured under those tight fitting clothes, he’s more machine than man.”
To hear some of the AI-generated albums that Dadabots have produced, visit their YOUTUBE and OFFICIAL BANDCAMP. More on the project can be read in a document the researchers’ produced in 2017 at THIS LOCATION.
ARCHSPIRE‘s latest album ‘Relentless Mutation’ was released via Season of Mist in September 2017. The cover, created by renowned artist Eliran Kantor, and album info can be viewed below.
Tracklist:
1. Involuntary Doppelgänger (3:46)
2. Human Murmuration (4:13)
3. Remote Tumour Seeker (4:01)
4. Relentless Mutation (4:35)
5. The Mimic Well (4:05)
6. Calamus Will Animate (3:50)
7. A Dark Horizontal (6:10)
Welcome to first class technical death metal madness. Machinegun vocals rattle remorselessly over a furious flurry of arpeggios, scales, and everything else that the two string wizards of ARCHSPIRE can pick at break-finger speed out their guitars. If this sounds hardly human at the level of technical execution, the Gatling-style hyper-drumming pushing these monstrous compositions forward is adding to the alien impression. It cannot even be a question that the Canadians have outdone themselves with their third full-length, ‘Relentless Mutation’.
This album is simply insane in a most excellent way. The level of musicianship that ARCHSPIRE offer, will leave even tech death fans drooling. Yet the outfit from Vancouver in British Columbia is bringing an important extra to the table, the rare ability to write great songs. ‘Relentless Mutation’ is not just another compilation of outstanding musicianship, but the songs come with recognisable patterns that make sense in the greater conceptual framework of the album. And a clever use of contrasts leaves moments of clarity for the listener to take a breath and get ready for the next assault.
ARCHSPIRE exploded onto the scene in the year 2009 – after an earlier prelude under the moniker DEFENESTRATED. The band grew out of the rich Canadian scene for technical extremes that includes illustrious names such as GORGUTS or BEYOND CREATION. Yet ARCHSPIRE set out to take the sound to the next level from the start as their debut album ‘All Shall Align’ (2011) made clear, which immediately received critical comparison with the scene’s spearheads like OBSCURA.
The band developed a lyrical concept revolving around a dystopian science fiction universe, which was expanded on their sophomore full-length, ‘The Lucid Collective’ (2014) that witnessed ARCHSPIRE gaining widespread international recognition as one of the hottest names within the tech death community and beyond.
With ‘Relentless Mutation’, the Canadians are pushing the limits of their genre even further than before on all levels. ARCHSPIRE come crushing like a whirlwind to free ears and minds from pre-conceived notions about technical death metal. Time to leave your shelter and face the tempest. This is the future.
The cover of ‘Relentless Mutation’ has been painted by renowned artist Eliran Kantor already well-known in the metal world for his works for TESTAMENT, ATHEIST, and HATE ETERNAL among others.