Review by Xephyr for Cloudkicker - Solitude (2020)

Confinement Conjures Creativity

I've found myself being quite fickle with the instrumental Djent-y, Math-y, Post-y Metal world quite a bit in the past few years, with my interest in the genre coming and going every few months or so. Due to my history with Buckethead, I've continued to be a fan of the instrumental Metal experience, through all of its changes over the years. Old shred albums from like the likes of Satriani and Malmsteen are still fun for me and bands like Animals As Leaders, Polyphia, and Plini have brought instrumentals into the modern era with their complex and precise melodies and insane technical skill. As a fan of a lot of these acts I tend not to concern myself with what may be noodling or over-the-top progressive wankery since, in all honesty, that's kind of what I think the subgenre is all about at the end of the day. These modern instrumental Metal bands do have one major thing in common though, and that's their strange fascination and attraction to the Djent sound. The dropped chugging admittedly contrasts well with the rest of the complex playing, but it's strange to see some of the most involved and intricate melodies always have a rather simplistic Djent backdrop to them. Cloudkicker, however, has been embracing the drop tuning for 10 years now and in a way that distinguishes himself from other bands, especially on Solitude. 

Beacons may be Cloudkicker's most artsy and ambitious project as he projects his own career as a pilot into a fantastic concept album, but Solitude is easily the fullest and heaviest I've ever heard him be. Rather than skirt around the overly criticized Djent chugs, he leans into them hard and delivers crushing riff after crushing riff with a desolate Post Rock atmosphere that very much encapsulates the atmosphere I've been feeling as 2020 has dragged on. "What They Do Is Not Art" immediately makes these two elements apparent with a fantastic and slightly off kilter Djent riff that leads into a lonesome atmospheric section that captures the essence of this album perfectly. Most of the other tracks follow this same formula with a ton of great riffs and Post Metal inspired rhythmic sections, but I'm never bored or tired of the relentless chugging. There's so much variety in this album for me that it's hard to really tire of it, whether it's the layered guitars in "Ashtabula",  the somber but hopeful melodies of "94 Days" and "Off His Way", or the fiercely heavy riffs of "Code Language" and "Sandö". 

Instrumental albums live and die by their riffs and atmosphere, and Solitude hits me in a way that I can't fully explain. All of the riffs have a simplistic complexity to them, with nothing feeling overplayed or sluggish. Cloudkicker has always known how to write a great chug riff, and since Solitude is his heaviest and darkest album to date, I'd say he's gotten even better at it over the years. Even on some of the longer tracks like "Banqiao" and "Sandö", his riff and chord progressions allow the songs to be a bit repetitive here and there but never monotonous. They're able to lull you into a groove before finally exploding into flurries of tight and elaborate riffing that keeps your full attention for every single second. The atmosphere is top notch as well, with droning sustained notes and interesting rhythm melodies popping in here and there to add to the composition. Solitude isn't afraid to slow down either, with "...I Wouldn't If I Were You" acting as an interlude and "Crawl Spaces" acting as a surprise acoustic finale.

The lonesome, desolate, and slightly angry edge that this album exudes is something that resonated with me as 2020 draws to a close and I can only guess that this messed up year is part of the reason Cloudkicker's Ben Sharp decided to take off the limiters in terms of heaviness. The title, Solitude, resonates for an obvious reason, but there's a good chance that this album was conceived due to the drastic drop in air travel in 2020 and Sharp possibly even getting furloughed or laid off, leaving him with a good chunk of time to devote to the Cloudkicker project. While I'm not insinuating that's a positive circumstance, it definitely paints a passionate and relatable picture of this depressing year with an instrumental album that is able to say so much more than an album with thousands of words in it. Solitude turned out to be a phenomenal jump in quality from his similar sounding 2019 album Unending and takes modern Djent riffing to a level I haven't heard in a very long time, all while balancing it with a lonely but hopeful blanket of atmosphere.