Style: progressive metal/rock (clean vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: New York, United States
Release date: February 26, 2021
The progressive-rock-sometimes-hinging-on-metal sphere is something I’ve been a bit disconnected from in the last few years. For a long time I would say that was my sweet spot, with bands like Coheed and Cambria (still my favorite band) and The Mars Volta being my biggest consumption. Lately I find myself in either the extreme techy metal side or in lighter dream pop areas. It may be the lesser number or impact of bands in that prog rock sphere (to me) that caused this but I’m not entirely sure. I mention all this as way to introduce that Signals of Bedlam pretty solidly fit into that in-between area of prog rock with some metal ideas sprinkled in as well.
It’s completely obvious this is what you are getting the minute the album begins with “Twilight Rebel with Red Cap”: frantic double stops and higher pitched guitars making noise coupled with Cedric Bixler-Zavala esque vocal delivery and rhythm immediately brought me back to that era of my life. As this song continues it makes some stops in other familiar territories: a drop into a flanger/phaser laden. guitar and vocal section (very Mars Volta), some. semi Haken esque builds and lead lines, and some very Ross Jennings esque vocals all make appearances in this song. The build to the big guitar melody is overall very satisfying and a great payoff, but I could swear I’ve heard the melody of it before somewhere.
The whole album plays with those prog rock sensibilities shown in the first song. There are lots of those post-hardcore esque double stop chord parts with angular frantic rhythms where the drums weave in and out. You also encounter a lot of those two guitars walking around together parts, where chords are more implied than used, which helps provide a very intricate feel and density of melodic information. “Badlands” and “$&@ttention” see the band explore some more nuanced, lower key area of their sound, the latter still making sure to work its way to a big vocal section while the former serves more as a transitionary piece on the album.
All the performances are pretty good, especially the guitars, which are incredibly tight with their rhythms and interweaving lines. There are rarely times either guitar is getting in the other’s way, and the way the album is mixed makes it very easy to pick either part you want to listen to and focus on that. The vocals are also definitely a major highlight, though I do feel at times it leans a bit too much on the soaring vocal part crutch or the transition to flangered voice. Some more exploration I think would be welcome, like in “Take the Crown” where there is a section of almost spoken word. I might say that for the whole album, as while it goes a lot of places, I think after a bit of few of those places start feeling more and more familiar, and as such lose their impacts. It definitely as a record has those tinges of the progressive rock bands of the early/mid 2000s but I do also feel it hasn’t necessarily gone many places those records didn’t already tread. As such while the record is definitely interesting and fun to listen to, I can’t help but feel over time it will lose to me reverting to those other older bands. Definitely a good album worth a look if you like those mentioned bands or the prog rock bordering on metal vein of things; this album definitely wouldn’t disappoint.
Recommended tracks: Pendulum in Swing, Red Sunflower, Sinister Sleight
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Artificial Language, Closure in Moscow, The Mars Volta
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Independent
Signals of Bedlam is:
– Cero Cartera
– Tom Hoy
– Chika Obiora
– Rich Abidor
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