I always felt kind of bad not finding the time to review anything from Polish label Selfmadegod. The truth is I still need to work up the courage to digest all of that wall-to-wall grindcore widely populating Selfmadegod roster. So, when Myopia was advertised as technical thrash, I picked up the album to give coverage where it is due.

My personal sympathy always lies with those who try their hardest, no matter the craft. Myopia has endured enough in its 12 year history. The demands the band places on the technical skills necessary to participate in Myopia, combined with the line-up constantly losing one or the other key cog, left the band with only two full-lengths issued to date. In fact, the slab under investigation, Enter Insectmasterplan, has originally seen the light of day back in 2005, and January 2007 release is a reissue.

Despite some hints of playfulness (Planet Groth), quick Bay Area moments (Masterlan) and some hints of atmospherics connected with the topic of space travel, Myopia plays a super-duper technical brand of progressive thrash. This is not the album you can digest in one listen. Also, forget using it as a background material. The challenging thickheaded chords the album is full of will simply fly by. Figuring out where one Myopia riff starts and another one ends is like solving a math quiz. Many songs take a while to get going, with multiple stops and starts, accelerations and neck-snapping knee-breaking polyrhythms. Yet, ultimately there is some kind of weird groove at work here, the one not afraid of throwing in an air raid siren lead or a healthy dose of fuzz (Project Insect). This is the ultimate non-commercial music, the one done to satisfy the most demanding technician in music.

One could say this is Voivod inspired, but I can’t recall Voivod ever being as technical and progressive. Meshuggah might be another reference, yet Myopia does not come off as brutal at all. The early Atheist recordings, Spiral Architect and Cynic one-off masterpiece are truly the closest stuff to measure Myopia by.

I am in complete awe by the skills Myopia trio possesses, even if I don’t quite dig all of the songs. Not generally a fan or overly technical display, the Poles simply dragged me in and planted my rear end in a chair demanding attention. The minus of the overall equation is bassist Robert Kocon having to sing, and his voice is nothing but some simplified monotone screams atop of his lungs. As complex as his bass lines appear (sometimes completely diverging with the drum patterns or guitar riffs), the vocals do not do Myopia justice. Otherwise, if in need of a music teacher, definitely call one of these dudes up, Bogdan Kubica drumming reaching the highest rung on a complexity ladder. This one is very much for open-minded, or those knowing how to handle an instrument and trying to get better at it.