May 2022 Featured Release - The Infinite Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month's feature release for The Infinite, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)), is the 2012 sophomore album from Indiana-based modern progressive metallers The Contortionist, Intrinsic. After this band's progressive deathcore debut Exoplanet, Intrinsic is where they develop a modern progressive metal sound while maintaining some of their djenty deathcore roots, and it's the right amount of heaviness before it gets reduced in subsequent albums. If anyone wants to hear The Contortionist with the most balance in their prog-metal sound, Intrinsic is that album, recommended for any listener of the band and progressive metal to listen.

https://metal.academy/releases/4241

I did my review, here's its summary:

Nearly 5 years before this review, I was getting tired of the more melodic bands and the gates were finally opened for me to discover heavier genres such as djent, deathcore, and post-metal. The Contortionist certainly makes a structural mix of those former two genres and a dash of the latter together, proven with their interstellar debut Exoplanet. After a couple years of anticipation since that debut's release, their second album Intrinsic is where they keep up that game but with a more expansive and refined sound. The experiment might not be as successful as their debut, but it's still quite some excellent ambition. Making sure that the band is standing out as usual, Intrinsic definitely gives them an unmistakable identity. While there is some change, you can still hear elements of their earlier brutal deathcore groove, alongside technical riffing, soothing ambience, and intense crescendos, for slightly less emphasis on extreme and more towards dynamics. It's also a continuation of the band's evolution to sound more progressive, with the structures being far more frantic than cohesive. Different sections switch unexpectedly with an occasional return which, even then, can come out as unorthodox. Indeed the loud-soft contrast is so real yet unreal. They can perform rare beautiful ambience with keyboards and clean singing one moment and make brutal twist into the insane fury of searing riffing assault and beastly growls the next. That contrast has massive potential, mostly occurring in the first half, whereas the second half is more eerie and doomy, with the exception of a one more short heavy encore with a devastating breakdown, probably one of the most brutal to be heard in djenty deathcore! Intrinsic is for sure something to check out if you're up for a progressive adventure. This full-on experiment would pay off too well, and they would end up taking a less heavy and more overly progressive direction in subsequent albums. Enjoy the heaviness while this experiment is placed in your hands!

4.5/5

Recommended tracks: "Holomovement", "Feedback Loop", "Causality", "Geocentric Confusion", "Solipsis"

For fans of: Meshuggah, Cynic, the more progressive The Ocean

Not a whole heck of a lot to say about this one from The Contortionist. I have been following this band for a while and hearing their unique brand of progressive deathcore with atmospherics and extended jazz harmonies always brings a smile to my face. And hearing how this group is able to use the djent formula and make it sound melodic with forward momentum just highlights the failures in Meshuggah's music that much more clearly.

However, the album still has quite a few problems. The major one is, of course, the lack of focus on individual tracks. A lot of 2010s progressive metal is very contempt with having three or four unique ideas that are kept isolated from each other instead of using two or three motifs that interweave within each other, and The Contortionist are no exception. I find that, as The Contortionist move away from progressive deathcore on the later portions of this album, and their next album Language, song structure continued to improve. It's a decent album with a lot of potential, but still held back by a slew of progressive metal problems that I consistently criticize, even today.

6/10

I find that, as The Contortionist move away from progressive deathcore on the later portions of this album, and their next album Language, song structure continued to improve.

Interestingly, I find the structure in a few songs in the otherwise superb Language to be the weakest by the band, especially that album's final track "The Parable". We all have different opinions on a certain aspect of an album's songs, but nothing wrong with that, right?

I was a pretty big Contortionist fan when I first heard their 2017 album Clairvoyant and played that record into the ground for a year or so before checking out their previous records, with Language being noticeably heavier and just as good but their first two records seemed to be a bit lackluster in comparison. I guess I was a bigger Contortionist fan back when I first listened to Intrinsic as I think I have to drop my score from a 3.5 to a 3.0 after a quick relisten. There are some moments of brilliance in tracks like "Holomovement" and "Dreaming Schematic", which have the more progressive, dreamy-like qualities that I've always looked to The Contortionist for, but it all feels a bit messy when the Djent-y harsh stuff comes into play alongside all the other ideas. They show that they can make it work to some degree, like in "Cortical", but even then the transitions into the more melodic and progressive sections feels forced and choppy for the most part. With the pure Djent elements being the weakest link, I can't say it bodes well for Intrinsic as a full album experience. I still really enjoy The Contortionist so none of this is truly bad by any means, but it's a bit hard to go back and want to sit through all of the dull chug sections to just get progressive sections that are still weaker and less memorable than Clairvoyant or Language. Great band, pretty so-so album as they tried to find their unique sound.

3/5

I was really impressed with The Contortionist's debut album "Exoplanet" (4/5) when it was released back in 2010. In fact, I actually wore the t-shirt around for a couple of years there so I was really looking forward to seeing what the Indiana-based deathcore outfit had to offer when 2012's "Intrinsic" saw the light of day a couple of years later & I wasn't disappointed either. The pivot towards a more progressive & less extreme sound fit like a glove in my opinion & "Intrinsic" ended up being a really big record for me that year so I have to admit that it's always baffled me that people generally seem to regard it as a bit of a disappointment. I honestly can't fathom how any fan of progressive metal music doesn't really dig it to tell you the truth as it's so professionally put together & possesses an undeniable class throughout the very consistent tracklisting. Perhaps my original 4.5/5 rating was a bit extreme but I can find very little worthy of criticism here. The dreamy progressive metal stylings glide across your ear drums leaving a glistening trail behind them while the complexity in the song structures is as dazzling as it is effortless. The last three tracks are the clear highlights in my opinion & leave me with a really sweet taste in my mouth, particularly the wonderful "Cortical". I've always found the quality of closer "Parallel Trance" to be impressive too as it could easily have been drawn from a premium space ambient release.

There are a few more generic deathcore sections spread across the tracklisting which is probably the reason for me dropping my rating a touch but some the highlights of the album also come during the heavier moments too so I'm not complaining too much. Despite the obvious deathcore component, I'm not sure that there's enough of the band's original sound left to still be claiming that tag any longer though. This is a truly progressive metal record in every sense of the term so there's really no need for additional tags.

I originally favoured "Intrinsic" over "Exoplanet" but now I'm not so sure. They're both very strong albums in their own right with "Intrinsic" being a horribly underappreciated release from a band that wasn't capable of producing anything less than top class stuff. In fact, after this revisit I think I'd go so far as to say that The Contortionist are still the finest exponent of deathcore-based progressive metal that I've encountered & I'd take "Intrinsic" over similar feature releases like Slice The Cake's "Odyssey To The West" or After The Burial's "Rareform".

For fans of After The Burial, Slice The Cake & Kardashev.

4/5