Given the physical rigors of playing in an insanely fast, ruthlessly technical band, it’s understandable that Origin’s members need an occasional sabbatical. Singer-guitarist Jeremy Turner and drummer John Longstreth took multi-year hiatuses before rejoining the fold for the Topeka-based group’s 2008 release Antithesis. Origin’s “Finite” video, a straight performance clip taken from that album, induces stress because of the impossible speed it documents: It’s like watching a particularly reckless daredevil stunt. Longstreth, the current cover model for Sick Drummer magazine, provides the group’s bursting-heart pulse, while Turner and his fellow guitarist/vocalist Paul Ryan, their fingers blurred during sweep-picking flourishes, dispense ringing solos that cut through the sonic anarchy. Origin uses a three-pronged pitchfork of a vocal attack, with lead singer James Lee sharing the death-metal grunts and serpentine hisses with Turner and Ryan. Live, it’s almost impossible to process Origin’s velocity at first, but eventually patterns form in the chaos, and spectators reconcile the inhuman sounds with the ostensible mortals on stage.
Tue., Aug. 5, 7:30 p.m., 2008