Style: Progressive Deathcore, Technical Death Metal (Harsh Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Fallujah, Rivers of Nihil, Black Crown Initiate, An Abstract Illusion, The Contortionist (early)
Country: USA (Nebraska)
Release date: 25 July 2025

Ben’s Raincoat is a legendary item that prevents one debuff and instead grants a temporary barrier for ten percent of maximum heal-oh shit, wrong review. Ahem. 

Named after an item from indie rogue-like game Risk of Rain 2 (great game by the way), Ben’s Raincoat is an American progressive death metal/deathcore band who describe themselves as a “Rogue-Like band with permadeath”. Well, that’s not a very helpful description, but suffice to say, Ben’s Raincoat obviously has a passion for gaming and music, so they’re alright dudes in my book. Radiant Cliffs is the debut EP from the five-piece tech death startup, and right off the bat, some comparisons are readily apparent. 

Perhaps the simplest way to sum up Ben’s Raincoat’s style is by saying that it sounds like half of the band’s favorite Fallujah album is Empyrean—abundant with modern technical rhythm guitar work and atmospheric lead guitar/synth textures—and the other half’s favorite is Leper Colony, with its crushing breakdowns and a more chug oriented approach to riffing. Radiant Cliffs’s riffing style consists mainly of arpeggiated melodic structures, and is often accompanied by soaring leads, blast beats, and double bass, forging ahead until they are inevitably interrupted by some form of deathcore breakdown. “Plunder” acts as a compelling thesis for such an approach: a swelling synth intro blooms into the main theme of the song—a 16th note tremolo that outlines the central chord progression—which returns later in expanded form for the chorus. I enjoy how each chorus is composed of straight 16th notes while every other part of “Plunder” has more of a cantering triplet feel, giving the song an engaging and satisfying structure. Ben’s Raincoat’s riffs are at their best when they focus on outlining and enhancing a song’s structure and melodic progression, or when straying further into galloping metalcore territory (“Material Possessions”, “Chorus of Flies”), and “Plunder” has both sides in spades. 

As with many a debut EP though, there are questionable exploratory moments that sound like Ben’s Raincoat didn’t quite know how to flesh out an idea, or otherwise fit certain parts together cohesively. Riffs will sometimes stray into odd deathcore-infused djent territory that feels at odds with the rest of a song’s structure. Take the intro riff to “Material Possessions” as an example: a stilted 16th note pattern jumps over awkward intervals that compose a melody which sounds more akin to an early 2010’s solo bedroom djent project than a modern tech death group. One of my favorite riffs of the EP follows immediately afterward—a shimmering downward cascade of 16th note groupings of three—giving a slight whiplash effect to a high point due to the somewhat clumsy pacing. Similarly, “Ignition” opens with an out of place hardcore riff bereft of any form of lead guitar or synth texture, leaving the track sounding like an unfinished soundscape in the context of the rest of Radiant Cliffs when the obvious intent was to be a firestarting thrasher.. Deathcore breakdowns occur on nearly every track, ranging from climactic (“Chorus of Flies”) to derivative Lorna Shore ripoffs (“Horticulture”), another symptom of the inexperience and inconsistency common on debut releases.

Besides Fallujah’s dreamy riff-laden atmosphere and Lorna Shore’s formulaic breakdowns, the other main point of reference to be found on Radiant Cliffs comes—somewhat surprisingly—in the form of vocalist Dominik English’s uncanny resemblance at times to Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan. English has a massive range which he fully utilizes, and is able to pull off the same form of half-distorted “goblin” singing that Ryan is so well known for. At times, the vocal performance verges on the stereotype of deathcore vocal olympics, but English has a great sense of pacing, injecting his performance with plenty of layering and variety in an intelligent and natural manner, fully justifying his utilization of the tropes. While such a performance goes hand in hand with the core tech death and deathcore conceit of Ben’s Raincoat, it also has the unfortunate side effect of further illuminating the neophytic qualities of Radiant Cliffs. 

Fear not though, Ben’s Raincoat. You were raised in the crucible of rogue-like gaming. Sure, there are plenty of weak moments to go along with the strong, but the strong has great potential to be refined into something unique and compelling. You have the opportunity to take everything you’ve learned from your debut EP and do even better on your next playthrou-errr, release. There are a number of small details that shine through the tropes—such as the spectral piano over the chugging riff in “Chorus of Flies”, or the nostril inhale before the track’s climactic final breakdown—that blow the winds favorably in your direction. All that’s left is to continue working, exploring, and respawning until you’ve perfected your build. Something something meta progression.

Recommended tracks: Plunder, Material Possessions, Chorus of Flies
You may also like: Abiotic, Krosis, Ovid’s Withering, Serein
Final verdict: 5.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Independent

Ben’s Raincoat is:
– Jared LeGier (Bass)
-Geddy Johnson (Drums)
-Jace Krajicek (Lead Guitars)
-Nick Jordan (Rhythm Guitars)
-Dominik English (Vocals)

The post Review: Ben’s Raincoat – Radiant Cliffs appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Black Crown Initiate, Textures, early The Contortionist
Country: Minnesota, USA
Release date: 6 June 2025

Retooling. If you’re the sort of person who assiduously watches sitcoms from their first season, you’ll be familiar with retooling. It’s the process by which a TV show is changed in order to alter a faulty premise into a more successful one, often by removing or adding a character, or changing the tone. Perhaps the most familiar example to my generation would be Parks and Recreation, which was retooled in its second season from a snarky The Office replica into a more heartwarming and slightly cartoonishly humoured show with the introduction of two new characters to incite tensions, both sexual and financial. Other famous examples include Star Trek (the entire cast of the initial pilot was replaced), Dallas (after killing off major character Bobby Ewing, the show suffered a catastrophic nose-dive in ratings and decided to reintroduce dead Bobby by revealing the entire season was a dream), and, of course, Family Matters. Starting out as a blue-collar take on The Cosby Show, Family Matters became completely restructured around the initial one-time character of Steve Urkell (‘did I do that?’) and subsequently turned, as Key and Peele put it, ‘into goddamn Quantum Leap.’¹

Minnesotan outfit Giant’s Knife are arguably the Parks and Recreation of prog metal, changing tone a little with the help of two new characters. Their 2021 debut Oracle was a fully instrumental work with a post-djent flavour; heavy riffs but with a melodic focus, with a strong emphasis on flow. On sophomore At the End of All Things, alongside the founding trio (Austin, Rylan, and Tony), the band have found their very own financial and sexual tension-makers in the form of Kyle and Will who both provide guitar work—while Kyle and Rylan unleash the clean and harsh vocals. Will audiences welcome the new cast or are they destined for cancellation after just two seasons, ala every single Netflix show post-2017?

Opening with a nod to their past, the five minute instrumental opener “Wayfarer” provides a throughline from Oracle, contextualising Giant’s Knife new shtick within the evolution of their sound. At the End of All Things truly begins with “Beyond the Reach of Comets” where the vocals finally get to walk on to cheers from the live-studio audience, showcasing the new range of metalcore barks, death growls, and soaring chorus cleans. It turns out that Giant’s Knife with vocals sound more like Textures, and, in the softer moments, like The Contortionist. With stronger production and those harshes guiding them, Giant’s Knife also sound newtons heavier, often veering into the djentrified progressive death stylings of Black Crown Initiate or even, to my ear, Whitechapel. 

Soft harmonies befitting the likes of The Contortionist or Tesseract perforate many of the tracks, such as the refrains of “Godfall” and “Beyond the Reach of Comets”; with the atmospheres of interlude “Loading…” and synthy outro palette cleanser “Null” occupying a similar sonic space to the aforementioned bands. “Where Souls Lie Still” almost verges on post-hardcore akin to The Safety Fire with its more anthemic sensibility. These moments are always done, just like the best sitcom comedies, with a powerful sense of tension and release.

Over time, however, we inevitably end up hitting on the usual plot beats and tropes that hold an otherwise promising cast back: the open low-string breakdowns that infect “Beyond the Reach of Comets”, a tendency to stick to a similar tempo for most songs, and the usual filler djent riffs that feel a little lazy, such as the one that plagues “Godfall”. For the most part, these issues are at least interwoven into compositions which tend to evolve over the course of songs, and rarely linger too long on a single idea; clearly part of the legacy of starting out instrumental and needing to keep the compositions moving. By the time the lumbering outro riff of “Molten Core” hits its nadir, you really do feel like you’ve hit the void. Meanwhile, “Destined Death” pushes the instrumental work in the ‘faces in the sky’ section to a delicious extreme, the vocal delivery providing a throughline while the kit is pulverised ever more intensely and the riffs become more frenetic. When Giant’s Knife hit upon an epic clean section or push the complexity of the instruments to further extremes they find their best pay-offs. At other times, like a sitcom where everything has to return to normal by the end, the audience leaves entertained but without memorable moments to hold in their mind. 

At a svelte thirty-nine minutes, At the End of All Things runs a tad longer than the average sitcom, but the retooling has put a good show on a new path, one guaranteed to find the Minnesotan five-piece a larger audience. With slightly stronger writing, a willing fanbase, and maybe a guest spot from Henry Winkler, Giant’s Knife’s promising fresh start could blossom into something truly brilliant. Let’s hope they get renewed for a third season. 

Recommended tracks: Beyond the Reach of Comets, Godfall, Where Souls Lie Still
You may also like: Rannoch, Subterranean Lava Dragon
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives

Label: Independent

Giant’s Knife is:
– Austin (guitars, programming)
– Kyle (guitars, vocals)
– Will (guitars)
– Rylan (bass, vocals)
– Tony (drums)

1. “I’m a fuckin’ actor, Gene, I’ve done more cocaine than you weigh, motherfucker!” ︎

The post Review: Giant’s Knife – At the End of All Things appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive metal, black metal, deathcore, post metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Ocean, Carnifex, Whitechapel, Lorna Shore, Kardashev
Country: UK
Release date: 29 November 2024

In the last month of the year, we tend to start thinking about the year in retrospect, the events, achievements and things that happened, whether those are big—new starts, profound losses, smashed goals—or small—reading enough books, growing a plant, irritating a neighbour. Completing an album is a pretty big deal, so, y’know, kudos to every band who released an album this year. Which means triple kudos to Monolith: the Devon-based band have released three concept albums in 2024 all set in the same universe and combining to create a mini sonic universe of narrative-driven concept albums exploring cosmic horror and environmental themes. The first two, Hornets Nest and Lord of the Insect Order, accorded with the band’s established punchy deathcore aesthetic, but on their third offering they veer off into territories proggy, posty, blackened, and leviathanic. The Black Cradle is named for the submarine in the album’s story, in which a lone person escapes from an anthropogenic apocalypse in search of the purest isolation at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. 

Monolith subject The Black Cradle to increasing atmospheres of pressure. The first couple of tracks heavily feature Elise Cook providing eerie, gossamer cleans vocals over languid post-metal cultivating an atmosphere similar to that of Dreadnought—when the blackened screams come in, that similarity is reinforced. But as Monolith delve further trenchward, their heft and intensity increasingly suffocate the listener with lower tunings and increasing deathcore influence; by the time we end up at “Hadalpelagic: Life Oblivion / Terra Calamity (19686 – 36000ft¹)” the riffs have reached Meshuggah levels of intensity and benthiccness. The textbook crushing riffs, frenetic drumming and unrelenting screams of Monolith’s native deathcore form the sonic backdrop within which The Black Cradle unfolds and their mastery of their instruments is unquestionable. Can they pivot successfully to proggier and blackened abodes?

Well, yes. Monolith demonstrate an impressive knowledge of the tropes and techniques of their newly adopted genres. Samples tell us of unidentified flying objects and astrophysical anomalies unfolding upon the surface, the heavily synthesised voices of lamenting whales on “Bathypelagic: Blood Throne Ascension (3821ft – 13124ft)” talk of their grief as one of their own falls to the bottom of the ocean to feed the seafloor—the cetaceans embarked upon their own “aimless dance” to parallel that of the human race—and we’re, of course, treated to some spoken word (from Cook); it wouldn’t be prog without it! Moments of orchestral accompaniment breakthrough, notably closing out the final three minutes of “Mesopelagic: Inquest of the Apparitions (656ft – 3281ft)”, adding an extra layer of portent to an already inordinately grandiloquent work. 

Indeed, lyrically, The Black Cradle shows off an aptitude for storytelling and a Thesaurus-level vocabulary. I don’t think I’ve ever heard any band use terms like “truculent”, “decorticate,” or “jejune”, arguably for good reason; there’s a line between evocatively intellectual lyric writing and try-hard pretension, and Monolith straddle it with onanistically “Parklife”-esque abandon. For the most part, this is a dense and intelligent evocation of descent into a pitiless abyss, but the tendency towards excess is notable because it exists in the compositions, too. At sixty-five minutes and with their shortest track running to nearly ten minutes, The Black Cradle is undeniably self-indulgent. The aforementioned whale vocoder part is cool as hell, but it’s also the product of a band that left nothing on the cutting room floor—sometimes such a songwriting ethos breeds brilliance, sometimes it breeds turgidity.

The other main issue is the blackened screams which are always employed with the same rhythmic pattern which begins to grate when employed for an extended period—their home turf Whitechapel-esque deathcore growls are the stronger performance by far. The weakness of these higher screams also highlights the production; while Monolith’s mixing and mastering have improved over the course of their year’s output, the high end can nevertheless become tinny, washing out those screams and some of the higher atmospheres and orchestral work. The low end is well served, except in the most cataclysmically heavy and layered moments at which the sound can get a little muddy. But that these issues remain minor is testament to how powerful Monolith’s core vision is; the listener can’t help but succumb to the depths.

The Black Cradle is an overwhelming work, perhaps to a fault, but it certainly proves Monolith’s chops as a versatile and exploratory band able to turn their hand to genres outside their usual scope. Certainly, if you enjoy intricate and challenging concept albums with a strong sense of narrative and setting—think Echoes by Wills Dissolve, Hivemind by Ashbreather, and, of course, Pelagial by The Ocean—then The Black Cradle offers a whole ocean to explore and possibly be crushed by.

Recommended tracks: Bathypelagic: Blood Throne Ascension (3821ft – 13124ft), Mesopelagic: Inquest of the Apparitions (656ft – 3281ft)
You may also like: Wills Dissolve, Ashbreather
Final verdict: 7/10

1. I had to copy the song titles as they were written on Monolith’s Bandcamp, but, yes, the lack of a comma to denote a thousand upset me too. ︎

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Monolith is:
– Luke (vocals)
– Rob (guitars)
– Lewis (bass/whispers)
– Dan (drums)

The post Review: Monolith – The Black Cradle appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: progressive death metal, metalcore, djent (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Periphery, Native Construct, Vildhjarta
Country: Illinois, United States
Release date: 3 May 2024

Immortality Complex is the latest album from the Illinois based djent/deathcore turned prog metal band Resuscitate. Formed by multi-instrumentalist Evan Van Dyne in 2018, Resuscitate has now released three full length albums, but Immortality Complex promises to be the most dynamic and progressive thanks to the addition of Joshua McKenney as clean vocalist, although Van Dyne remains as the primary songwriter and instrumentalist.

From the very first note of opener “Quoque Distet (What Do You See?)” the scope that Resuscitate is striving for on Immortality Complex becomes apparent. McKenney’s sultry cleans introduce the album’s concept, a bleak future that has abandoned reason in search of immortality, as MIDI strings and other chiming keyboards introduce motifs that pave the way for heavier instruments to enter. The searing guitar solo that follows the first stanza is superbly placed, and its restraint speaks to a melodic sophistication that makes each line that much catchier. By the time the drums kicked in and the track fell into its BTBAM-esque syncopated breakdown, I was stuck hook, line, and sinker, and the continued use of catchy melodic guitars and aching clean vocals that followed only further enthralled me.

“Radiating the Disease” continues in much the same manner as the opening track, with an opening riff that could have been lifted directly from any late-era BTBAM track without anyone batting an eye. Thankfully, we don’t remain squarely planted in BTBAM-land for long; the beautifully enunciated harsh vocals, also performed by Van Dyne, have a deathcore edge that goes a long way towards making the zanier riffs seem heavier. Still, melody, fueled by McKenney’s stellar cleans and Van Dyne’s scorching leadwork, remains the driving force even when the track extends itself towards the realm of symphonic blackened death metal in its back half. When the two melodic elements briefly meet and harmonize at transition points, it’s as though entire universes are created in their friction. However, despite how deadset each element had seemed in its purpose, this track contains one truly questionable songwriting choice: there’s a waltz section. Right after the song’s first climactic solo, there’s an acoustic, half-time waltz in 3/4. To say it disrupts the song’s flow would be an understatement, although I’m sure that fans of Native Construct and BTBAM will eat it up. I, however, just find it plain silly and completely unnecessary when placed in the midst of what would otherwise be an absolute ripper.

Thankfully, Resuscitate follows with what is undoubtedly the best track on the album, “Immortality Complex.” From the beautifully dissonant intro that rivals the likes of Artificial Brain to the instantly catchy verse vocals and riffs and truly epic guitar solos in the back half, this track puts an ache in my chest quite unlike anything else recently. When the first solo hits, tingles run down my spine and when McKenney screams “We can start over!” I can’t help but scream along. Oh, and the Max Mobarry feature slaps if you’re into Others by No One. I can’t promise that you’ll be as emotionally responsive to this track as I was, but I must implore you to try. Songwriting-wise, the title track is also where Resuscitate really hits their stride. Quite reminiscent of last year’s Zon by The World is Quiet Here albeit a bit toned down in terms of complete insanity, the style is what I’d expect from a modern deathcore turned prog metal band.

So how do you follow up what I’d say is the best song of the year so far? Well according to Resuscitate, you abandon any and all ethos and emotional impact garnered by the previous track and lay down a lame swung piano diddy instead. Oh man, do I dislike “The Great Filter.” It has the same issues as the end of “Radiating the Disease,” just ten times more pronounced. It makes me see why some people say they can’t stand the genre switching of bands like BTBAM; and I love BTBAM! The album’s nineteen-minute epic closer “Reclamation” does a lot to wash the bad taste of the previous track out of my mouth with its decadent rhythmic interplay between the guitars and harsh vocals, a stellar djent section that finally pays off on all the rhythmic promises the album had been making thus far, and a thall-styled outro that rivals the likes of Vildhjarta on their best day. Although I’d argue that there are a few transitions that feel a bit padded for length, the track more than earns its run time.

So where does Immortality Complex fall scorewise? That’s a tricky question–one of the many reasons in fact why this review took so long for me to write. There are moments on this record that are magnificent, where a grand scope and a razor fine attention to detail meet and make magic. There are other moments such as large chunks of “Radiating the Disease” and “The Great Filter” where I can’t help but roll my eyes at some of the songwriting choices. If you’re a fan of bands like Native Construct and BTBAM and you loved last year’s Zon, I’m sure that you’ll find great enjoyment here. If you’re a person that needs a bit more motivation behind your zany songwriting choices, your mileage will vary; there’s still three utterly killer tracks to be found here. Anyways, when you see my score below you’ll realize that I fall into the first camp.

Recommended tracks: Immortality Complex, Reclamation, Radiating the Disease
You may also like: The World is Quiet Here, Others by No One, Drewsif, Alustrium
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram

Label: independent

Resuscitate is:
– Evan Van Dyne (guitar, bass, vocals, drums, mixing, mastering)
– Joshua McKenney (vocals)
– DJ Martel (orchestral arrangement [track 1-4])
– Jake Farhang (orchestral arrangement [track 5])

The post Review: Resuscitate – Immortality Complex appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive death(core?) (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Krosis
Review by: Zach
Country: US-IL
Release date: 9 September, 2022

We were gathered ‘round the Subway water cooler the other day talking about our favorite non-metal media. As expected of metalheads, discussion of horror is always just a few words away, and surprise, most of us included horror movies on our favorite films list. With that discussion, our glorious leader Sebastian brought up an excellent point. You can tell a lot about someone from their taste in art, spoken like Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. And one of those films I listed on my favorites was the movie Hereditary. A movie that scared me, a lifelong horror fan, so badly that I refuse to watch it again. But what kind of person am I to subject myself to such a horrific film?

Probably the same person who thinks Warforged’s I:Voice is one of the most important death metal albums of the 2010s. It’s without a doubt the scariest album in my library, even beating out any Ulcerate or Ad Nauseam horror show. It is the only metal album to make me feel legitimately anxious and scared upon first listen, helped by the fantastic music video they made for the whole album. Whether that has to do with the phlegm demon vocals, the murky production atypical of The Artisan Era bands, or the fact that there are multiple musical jumpscares which come after melodic sections that lure you into a false sense of security is all up for consideration. Probably all three. This album is the crown jewel of terrifying, surprisingly beautiful, and everything in between. With 2022 turning out to be the year of killer follow ups, and coming from a band that made an album I consider a solid 9.5-10, surely nothing can go wrong here, right?

Right?

I’ve never seen a bigger step down since Fallujah’s Undying Light.

With every fiber of my being, it kills me to say that. I would be a dishonest man if I said this album was anything above mediocre. Gone is the atmosphere of Essence of the Land and I:Voice with the absence of vocalist and keyboardist Adrian Perez, replaced with hardly dissonant chugs and some…odd lyrics. But, throughout the release of the singles, I remained hopeful. After all, I should hear how the songs fit together in the context of the album. That’s what sold me on I:Voice, after all. 

I wish someone would’ve recorded my face when opener ‘No Land Man’ transitioned from a car seatbelt alarm into the next song. It’s probably the strangest creative choice I’ve heard in a while, and call it a nitpick as much as you want, but it really sets the tone for the rest of the album. These songs don’t fit together at all. ‘Self-Destruct Seminar’ into ‘Bliss Joined to The Bane’ is the closest we get to an actual transition on the album, though they’re my least favorite songs on The Grove. 

‘Bliss Joined’ was the very first single, and speaking of tone setters, this one did a great job. Between the overly simplistic guitar riffs and the lyrics, it set alarm bells ringing in my head from the moment it came out. “I’m a fat fucking mess and I’m dirty as shit/That’ll be old news when I get a drink” wouldn’t sound good even coming out of Mikael Akerfeldt’s mouth. It’s even more jarring coming out of the band that wrote straight up poetry on their last releases; as if Edgar Allan Poe gave up writing horror and decided it was time to write some trashy romance.

Throughout the entire album, I was waiting for The Grove | Sundial to smack me in the face with some incredible riff, but not even the guitars are safe here. Any semblance of a riff has been turned into endless chug after chug. Chugs are fantastic–genuinely one of the best sounds a guitar can make–but if nearly every single riff is a chug, something’s wrong. ‘Sheridan Road’ interrupts this pattern for a minute with some clean singing tainted in a rhythm that resembles  Seal’s ‘Kiss From A Rose’  far too much, before going right back into the chugs. The worst part is, the latter half of this song is kind of good. If that energy kept through the entire album, I would be singing its praises right now.

I’ve done a lot of ragging on this album, I know. The truth is that The Grove isn’t a bad album. It’s a sometimes okay album in those fleeting moments, but there’s just so much mediocrity below all that. The production sounds fantastic, and Jason Nitts’ drumming is amazing as usual, but other than that, there’s nothing incredible here. Maybe, in a few months, something’s gonna click and I’ll give this a higher score. But the more I listen to this, the less likely I see that happening.

Recommended tracks: Sheridan Road
You may also like: Release the Blackness, The Voynich Code, Pathogenic
Final verdict: 5.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: The Artisan Era – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Warforged is:
– Jason Nitts (drums)
– Alex Damske (bass, clean vocals)
– Jace Kiburz (guitars)
– Max Damske (guitars)
– Tim O’Brein (vocals)

The post Review: Warforged – The Grove | Sundial appeared first on The Progressive Subway.

Style: Progressive Deathcore, Modern Progressive Metal (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: US-MN
Release date: 03 December, 2021

A long time ago, one of my favorite genres of music was progressive deathcore. Ok, who am I kidding, it’s still one of my favorites. One of the greatest prog deathcore bands I revere is The Contortionist, and though they have changed their sound since, their first two albums I will always consider classics. Recently I have discovered what I believe to be a spiritual successor to that classic TC sound, Intrinsic’s Event Horizon.

Event Horizon is Intrinsic’s debut album that was four years in the making. I reached out to the band about their inspirations for the album, they explained that because the writing took place over such a large timespan, there are multiple influences such as Fallujah, VOLA, Between The Buried and Me, and The Contortionist (TC). While I am sure this is the truth, it seems apparent to me that TC was their greatest source of inspiration given the band name.

When I first played Event Horizon there was one thing that stood out to me as extraordinary, the harsh vocals. The harsh vocals, when they do appear, are so crisp and natural, which leads me to believe that the vocalist Dallas Baldwin was raised by grizzly bears. There is no other explanation for such a brutal growl sounding so second nature; growling has to be his mother tongue! I only wish there was a little bit more variation in the vocals. “Cause and Effect” has a great super deep guttural low which precedes a “blegh” (I love that). However, throughout the album he doesn’t frequent those super low notes, and the same can be said about higher pitched screams as well.

The instrumental portion of the music is extremely well executed too. Chris and James on guitars can go from ambient and lightweight picking, to super thick, heavy, full riffs in a heartbeat. They leave a lot of negative space and show their skill without shredding constantly, this is often accompanied with fills by Erin on the drums. You can especially hear his technical prowess in the softer parts of “Inertia” during the first minute, as well as the groovy bridge around the halfway mark. He is accurate and crisp in the heavier portions of the album, but I find the softer areas leave space for him to push towards the forefront more.

While I think each member of the band are exceptional musicians, there are a few faults with Event Horizon. The back half of the album is a bit drawn out because it has a few more of the longer songs. Whereas the front half is very strong with “Inertia” and “Perpetual Motion” kicking off the album. Additionally the songs that exceeded seven minutes in length generally had less of a hook to them, without a prominent recurring melody or chorus. This isn’t a major issue because some songs did feel like an ever evolving journey, which was cool… but it would be awesome to have something like Between The Buried and Me‘s “Ants Of The Sky”. That song is all over the place, but still manages to allude to that epic riff from the beginning throughout the song, and reinvents the riff at the end of the song.

Intrinsic are great at what they do, but for some reason I didn’t love Event Horizon as much as I expected I would. I thought they would fill the void that TC left when they started getting softer. Then I realized what was happening, listening to this album made me want to listen to TC. While Event Horizon is a good album, it leaves me craving more. It isn’t precise enough to replace TC’s Intrinsic or Exoplanet, yet it also isn’t original enough to be super unique or revolutionary. I did catch hints of other influences here and there, but there wasn’t much in this album that was like “Woah, that was a really cool and different take on prog deathcore!” Nevertheless, Event Horizon is still well done despite sounding a little too familiar, and I have high hopes for Intrinsic’s next release!

Recommended tracks: Inertia, Perpetual Motion, Deva
Recommended for fans of: The Contortionist, Stargazer, Between The Buried and Me
You may also like: Sleep Labs
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Intrinsic is:
– Dallas Baldwin (vocals)
– James Kunau (guitars)
– Chris Zywicki (guitars)
– Erin Bekkers (drums)

The post Review: Intrinsic – Event Horizon appeared first on The Progressive Subway.