Released on CD through the Metal Blade imprint Black Market Activities in 2007 alongside other C-Blast faves like Behold...The Arctopus, the latest album from Engineer has just been given a dope limited edition vinyl release, packaged in a full color jacket with spot-varnish artwork printed on both sides and pressed on orange/black smoked vinyl. Engineer are one of the better "metalcore" bands around right now, and in some ways are heirs to the sort of apocalyptic dirge that Anodyne specialized in when they were around. The Syracuse quartet combine many of the same elements on their second album The Dregs; ferocious death metal style roars, a churning rhythmic undercurrent that moves the band through pummeling slow-motion dirge to jagged time-signature shifts and bursts of thrash, buzzing angular basslines and crushing guitars that trade off with each other, and shades of bleak, nightmarish ambience that lurks at the far corners of the riffs and the songs that hints at the dread and nihilism that exists at the core of Engineer's howling endtime visions. The massive bass-heavy grind and pounding, almost tribal drumming that anchors the bands sound contributes to frequent comparisons to Unsane and Neurosis, a comparison that is still hard to top, with those gruff roaring vocals evoking Neurosis' Scott Kelley over a hostile, ultra-heavy barrage of distortion soaked riffs. Coalesce is another reference point, what with the choppy, jagged riffing and the total lack of anything other than full-force aggression throughout the course of the album; a supercharged steroided metal version of Midwestern noise rock, Amphetimine Reptile style bludgeon made a hundred times heavier and more pissed off. I love this sound, and Engineer do it as well as anyone; if you've been mourning the loss of Anodyne like I have, Engineer are carrying that torch high, and you'll definitely want to pick up The Dregs.