AFTER THE BURIAL
After the Burial is an American metal band from White Bear Lake, Minnesota, United States formed in 2004.
Minnesota’s After The Burial broke into the scene in 2004, bringing with them their own style of aggressive hardcore metal. With punishing rhythmic attacks and soaring duels, guitarists Trent Hafdahl and Justin Lowe’s approach on heavy metal shredding has been spreading throughout the underground metal scene like wildfire. Having completed tours with heavy hitters such as Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Necrophagist, and Hatebreed, their genre transcending style of metal has captured the ears of heavy metal, hardcore, and death metal fans alike. With the release of their album “Rareform”, which showcases their talented use of 7 and 8-string guitars, they have solidified themselves as pioneers of the instrument.
THE CONTORTIONIST
Warped time signatures, percussive mathematics, spider-fingered fretwork, dazzlingly atmospheric keyboards and immediately arresting vocals collide within THE CONTORTIONIST, who have achieved a career defining milestone with a “sophomore slump” defying feat of agility dubbed Intrinsic. The Indiana based prog-metal alchemists conjure the kinetic texture of RUSH, the cinematic musicality of DREAM THEATER, the heavy but heady metallic might of jazzy death wizards CYNIC and the studied experimental precision of BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME while simultaneously fashioning an overall sound uniquely their own.
With their earliest self-released work, THE CONTORTIONIST remade the rules within emerging genres like “deathcore” and “djent” as they evolved beyond scenes and categories, even as they were integral enough to be instrumental in defining them. The band teamed with Ken Susi of UNEARTH for their marvelously refreshing, conceptually driven debut, Exoplanet. With album number two, THE CONTORTIONIST entrusted Eyal Levi (DAATH, JOB FOR A COWBOY) and Jason Suecof (TRIVIUM, DEVILDRIVER) to help them capture their at once complex yet defiantly easy-to-connect-with esoteric material, which shatters the boundaries of conventional heavy music note-by-virtuosic-note.
In popular culture we often hear space referred to as “The Final Frontier.” And while it’s true that the vast majority of our universe remains unknown and deserving of further study, much of the inner workings of human beings beg further contemplation and discovery. How wonderfully appropriate, then, that having delved into deep space with their expansive sound and contemplative narrative on the genre-challenging and wholly impressive Exoplanet, THE CONTORTIONIST turns inward with the stunningly mind-bending follow-up, Intrinsic.
Whereas the first album explored the idea of earth’s destruction following the inevitable collapse of our star and the ensuing search for an inhabitable planet to call home, Intrinsic dives deep inside the mind. Moving across several operatic sections, the record transports listeners on a journey through the apparent holographic reality we call “experience,” through our very consciousness and metaphysical archetypes. Toward the album’s conclusion the band ultimately imagines advancements in neuroscience that would broaden and challenge who we are. All of the music, of course, captures these themes.
Canadian thrash architects VOIVOD would surely be proud of the band’s science based subjects. Like IRON MAIDEN before them, THE CONTORTIONIST is the kind of band that can be enjoyed for the basest of reasons but can also send astute listeners running to the library, like all of the generations of people who wanted to read more about the origins of “The Flight of Icarus” or “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
Lyrical inspiration and reference points came from a stack of research, which included books like Antonio Damasio’s The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness and Simon Young’s Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto. Immediate standout cuts “Holomovement,” “Causality” (about a person having a near death experience brought on by an obsession with lucidity in dreaming and astral movement) and “Dreaming Schematics” (where scientific minds develop procedures to strengthen and multiply synaptic networks) are epics. These songs and the rest of the album’s material inspire food for thought and aesthetic pleasure in equal measure.
THE CONTORTIONIST continues to be a study in contrast. In their quietest, most ambient moments, the band is intimately melodic. Alternately their heavy parts are as alarmingly bombastic as possible. An emphasis on songwriting and structure has resulted in a series of musical journeys that are constantly climbing new summits. There is only one song on the album with anything like a “repeating chorus.”
At the same time, the band is always ever careful to tastefully balance technique with purpose. They aren’t shredding for shredding’s sake. Each section of every song is rooted in logic, meaning and reason.
THE CONTORTIONIST has succeeded at creating intelligently tasteful metal that is as memorable and melodic as it is creative and dynamic. Within their formula, a listener paying close attention is as likely to discover elements akin to MINUS THE BEAR as MESHUGGAH.
Just as different genre-pushing bands broadened their own minds, the men in THE CONTORTIONIST are happy to lead fans through the gateway of heavy music down pathways of new music and self-discovery. With fervent attention to every detail of their composition and presentation, the band’s future in the pantheon of heavy music is assured. Intrinsic is the next step in what will become a landmark catalog. THE CONTORTIONIST opens minds from within and without.
REFLECTIONS
Armed with a handful of demo tracks and an EP release expected in Spring 2012, Reflections are a band that refuse to comment on their genre, and rightly so. Included in this deathcore series because they incorporate elements of the musical style (breakdowns included), they are harnessing a sound that, although fitting into the djent bracket too, is not constrained by the sum of its parts. This is promiscuous music that fucks precision into groove into brutality; wielding an A-HA track and a Katy Perry cover in their backcatalogue also shows how willing Reflections are to take conventionality up the chuffer.
However, where this five-piece are strongest is during music of their own creation. So far I’ve managed to eke out of the band the locations of 3 full-length tracks (I’ll link where possible), which, even as demoes, demonstrate the potential of this furious young troupe. Reflections have a sound that is pitched right on the edge of sanity; there is so much technical prowess here, especially during the spidery guitar-work that is so elaborate and dissonant. An Artifact refuses to clamp down, with its spindly solo opener and frenzied underlying chug that soon breaks down into the verse, whilst Advance Upon Me Brethren kicks into a bouncy groove, and then smashes you at freight train speed during the chorus. For all of the shitmunchers who wait with baited breath for the breakdown, there are those too, but framed by some really well executed music that doesn’t just leave you begging for the bass drop.
Reflections earn their stripes, though, not just because their musical skills are far beyond proficiency, but as willing participants in esotericism; this is exploratory music that takes cues from several areas of metal. It’s thought-out, provocative and technical whilst also being explosive and evocative and absent of any pretension. What’s more, they don’t participate in the race to be faster and heavier than everyone else (which gives deathcore its generic ooze), but instead are a far more convincing offering with progressive and groove elements thrown into the mix.
The next test for Reflections will be releasing a record that gives credit to their talent in being a cohesive and dangerous force. So far they’ve proved innovation in a genre that has already been condemned to the grave by some critics, and are pushing the boundaries in all sorts of degenerate ways. Reflections will find their strengths (and their admirers) by remaining as willing outcasts.
NO ZODIAC
No Zodiac is a slamming beatdown band from Chicago. Their sophomore LP “Eternal Misery” is out now on BDHW Records.
BURN THE REMAINS
Chicago’s Burn The Remains draws listeners in by making music with thought, emotion, passion, and dedication. Combining brutality with melody, BTR provides a visceral and raw side to educated songwriting.