Polyptych is a metal band founded in Chicago, IL in 2008 that fuses several styles of extreme metal, ranging from black metal to death and doom metal. Polyptych's debut record Panels Engraved was released in May 2012 and was released as a two piece. At this time, the band was initially conceived as a studio project; however, following the recording of their sophomore record in 2014, Illusorium, Polyptych has become a fully active four piece band, playing an inaugural show in 2014 alongside the New Zealand death metal titans, Ulcerate. Polyptych has also shared the stage with touring acts such as Mutilation Rites and Leprous, and Chicago local acts Sioum and Austaras. As a whole, the band seeks to both challenge and absorb their listeners through layers of riffs and melodies that reflect original concepts. These concepts explore anything from personal struggles (Panels Engraved) to the otherworldly (Illusorium). Ramon Martos at Pure Grain Audio described Illusorium as “one of the bravest and more ambitious albums released by an independent metal band in 2014. Frantic and epic in scope, this is a successful melding of a wide variety of extreme sounds.” On the band’s latest effort, Defying the Metastasis, Polyptych visualizes new territory, by bringing to life an imagined, modern totalitarian world that highlights an individual and population struggle against forces that are overwhelmingly larger than themselves. Michael Wuensch from Lastrites commented on Defying, saying that “in a nutshell, it’s heavy progressive death metal with a blackened edge that’s dark, spiritedly framed, and driven further by lyrics that read like a Dark Knight narrative admonishing the evils of the modern age right before the shit really hits the fan.”The core of Polyptych’s existence is to find something worthwhile to communicate to the world through the music, and each topic that has been discussed on the band’s records thus far has been something that the band believes to be of grave importance. Polyptych believes that people who listen to the music and read the lyrics will also be able to find a similar meaning that the band does in what they choose to compose.
