Style: Progressive Metal (mixed vocals)
Review by: Will
Country: Canada
Release date: 3 June 2022
Looking through a musician’s discography is often an interesting insight into the journey an artist has taken. In the case of Rick Massie, this is an interesting insight into the evolution and development of an artist finding their voice over a relatively short musical career: The Yukon-based musician has been releasing singles since 2019 in the form of individual songs and covers, evolving into a full album Eclipse in 2020. Since then, Massie has released singles fairly regularly over the last year culminating in this, his second album.
Guided to an Imperfect Light is a charming, genre-hopping album which spans from synth infused post rock to black metal. Throughout, Massie has not shied away from making bold musical choices. He also joins what may be becoming a growing trend in post-pandemic metal by giving his otherwise dark album a silver lining: As well as dealing with themes of loss and depression, Massie works to build in some truly optimistic feeling moments, of positivity and love to many of his tracks. Perhaps in an attempt to reach audiences that have been emotionally exhausted by the ongoing pandemic and constant onslaught of difficult news from every corner of the globe.
First and foremost on display on this album is Massie’s musicianship. Massie is truly a man of many talents here; not only pulling a Mike Oldfield in his playing all instruments on the album and doing all the production, but also performing all the vocals as well. Overall, Massie does a great job instrumentally, in particular, Massie’s Devin Tonwsend inspired guitar playing are pretty enviable. The drums are interesting but occasionally inconsistent: Shining through on tracks like the mammoth “Lullabye” but occasionally sounding a little sparse on other tracks such as “Need”. The bass is buried in the mix somewhere which sometimes makes the tone feel a little hollow.
The vocals on this track might be a love-or-hate affair. Massie’s clean vocals are usually on-point with some pure goth mumbling on tracks like “The River”, more classical hard rock vocals on “Need” and some more theatrical soaring vocals on tracks like “Lullaby”. However, his harsh vocals (styled after Bathory) sound very untrained and don’t cut across the song in the same way that Quorthon’s did.
The album composition is an interesting one two. As mentioned before, Massie doesn’t shy away from making bold choices throughout the album. He is more than happy to switch genres on a dime. Or, possibly most audaciously of all: performing a very avant-garde cover of Brahms’ Lullaby for 50 seconds in the middle of a metal album (on the surprisingly-titled track “Lullaby”). Sometimes, though, the rapid changes in tone, volume, style or even genre feel unmotivated by the song. One wonders why particular changes were necessary and get the impression that Massie simply added extra sections or riffs out of an abundance of ideas rather than in order to improve the quality of the songs themselves.
Guided to an Imperfect Light is a perfect name for an album full of contradictions: Technical excellence but compositional issues. Genre-hopping enthusiasm but a lack of focus. Flawed, but also very compelling.
Because this album somehow manages to be charming in its flaws.
Yes, it isn’t perfect, shiny and polished, instead there’s a grassroots authenticity to the music. Though having a lot of electronic elements to it, it doesn’t feel over-produced. The vocals, while certainly lacking polish still manage to engender the feel that you get from some of the early black metal albums from, say Bathory or Celtic Frost. The untrained vocals give sincerity to the lyrics. Sometimes it’s the small flaws that help connect an artist to the listener: Like seeing an artist’s thumbprint in a clay sculpture.
So, though this album isn’t groundbreaking, it is certainly worth a listen; especially for other aspiring musicians. If only to observe the fascinating spider webs of tightropes Massie walks, navigating a myriad contradictions with every step.
Recommended tracks: Lullaby, The River
Recommended for fans of: Devin Tonwnsend, Haken, Ihsahn, Thy Catafalque, Arcturus
You may also like: Breaths, Lunar, Maladie
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Self-Published
All music and production by Rick Massie.
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