Intronaut "Null" CD
[self-released]
Whoa, I'll be honest with you, seeing a CD-R in a plain white sleeve that's been painted with blotches of nasty looking watercolor paint with the band name and title stamped on the front in some sort of weird metallic ink had me expecting the worst - let's face it, this thing just doesn't look so hot. But holy shit are these cats pretty god damn talented! Four tracks and an intro that total damn near a half-hour, with each track topping six to seven minutes and plowing through everything from jarring metalcore and surging Neurosis-esque rhythms to noisy layers of droning guitar textures and emotionally wrenching dissonance - all of this accompanied by a superbly jazzy rhythm section that gives the basslines plenty of breathing room and lets the percussion color things up when the guitars start to become sparser and more abstract; while the vocals are gruff shouts that sound not so unlike Isis or the like. "Sores Will Weep" even closes with a couple of manipulated samples over straight electronic noise ambience, which is actually a rather effective little transition. I didn't know until after giving this thing an initial spin or two that the band contains current and former members of Impaled, Uphill Battle, Anubis Rising, and Exhumed, but regardless, you'd never really expect the resulting conclave of sounds herein to come from that pedigree of membership. I'm way into this shit, though. The songwriting kicks ass and never gets the least bit boring, and the bassist fucking rules - playing with his fingers (fretless, I believe) and adding a really creative touch to the songs. It's so nice to hear a band that actually makes use of their rhythm section, and I swear this is possibly the best bass performance I've heard all year. The drummer's slick too, dishing out plenty of tribal-esque patterns as well as snazzy cymbal work and intricate patterns that sort of flow with the tracks rather than locking into anything particularly repetitious. "Fragments of Character" unloads some truly moving melodic sensibilities and a great dash of twisted feedback meets caustic sludge towards the latter chunk of the piece, and the entirety of this song is nothing short of amazing. All of the songs are good, but if every song reached this level I'd shit myself. Seriously, this is one of those rare breeds of compositions that totally hits you on another level. Some of the bass work during the softer moments in "They (As in Them)" reaches damn near a Cynic/Atheist level, so trust me when I say I'm not gushing over this dude for no good reason - you ain't gonna hear this kind of shit too often these days, and almost never from this type of band! "Burning These Days", the longest track at nearly eight minutes, opens with some awesomely fucked up time signatures and churning chord bends against acerbic harmonics that are a little more active than some of the other rhythms, certainly lending a slightly different approach to this one - closing with another quick display of electronic noise and treated sample arrangements. The recording is a little muffled and dirty, but it's still competent, and with just a hint more brightness or force they'd be crushing skulls as well as offering shimmeringly lush contrasts within their dynamic shifts. The mix is pretty much set, I'd just like to hear the already natural sounding percussion granted a hint more oomph in the low-end department, while doing something to add density to the distortion without losing the prominence of the bass runs. The vocals sound pretty much dead on, and they're actually extremely close to the bull's-eye as it is, so... my suggestions are just minor tidbits, I'm certainly not complaining, especially not for a self-released affair. I've heard a number of proper full-lengths that sound like dirt compared to this. In the end the only thing about this release that's not awesome is the packaging, which definitely played a role in how long it took me to actually pop this disc in to give it a listen. But it's available for a mere $5ppd in the US, so pick this fucker up immediately. I'll be floored if these dudes don't get signed very soon (if they haven't already). Beef up the recording a smidge and slap this fucker into a stronger package and I'd given it an 8/10 easily. No fucking doubt. Fans of Burst should really look into this one. They've got a few immediately noticeable influences going on, but this isn't generic in any way, they're really trying to push for something that retains that style of sound without tying itself down to any boundaries. Great work, truly. Any label that doesn't jump at the chance to work with these guys is fucking worthless. And if you guys do a full-length, you absolutely must re-record "Fragments of Character"! Fuck, that shit is just brilliant! (7/10)
Running time - 28:22, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Fragments of Character, Burning These Days]
Intronaut - http://www.intronaut.net

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