Contortionist, The - Intrinsic (2012)^{Release ID: 4241}

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.