Style: Progressive Metal, Black Metal, Symphonic Metal (Mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend, Wilderun
Review by: Christopher
Country: Australia
Release date: 29 July, 2022
Following hot on the heels of his 2021 debut EP Lawn, Australian one-man-band Christian Cosentino has delivered unto us a sudden sophomore. Rooted in symphonic black metal, High Rising Times doles out the requisite blast beats, tremolo-picked riffs and adjunct stately orchestra but reinvigorates this somewhat hackneyed paradigm with layered production of crystalline quality and heavily synthesised electronica elements. The outcome sounds like what you’d get if Aquilus commissioned Empath-era Devin Townsend as both a collaborator and producer. That may sound like a contradiction in terms but the two personalities find a bizarre balance in one another; the turbid pandemonium of the former complementing the uplifting zaniness of the latter.
“Lustre 2” kicks off High Rising Times in Aquilus-like fashion with intense blast beats, an accompaniment of lighter-than-air piano, and a quasi-shoegaze approach to the symphonic section but with sumptuous doubled-up cleans taking the lyrical lead. With “Spyro” the Devin Townsend influence becomes more pronounced, opening with organ swells and a plucked banjo-like instrument before giving way to a screwball collection of xylophonic bells and whistles straight out of Townsend tracks like “Sprite” and “Borderlands.” Those embellishments lead us into a rapturous orchestral/metal amalgam worthy of Wilderun. Speaking of Townsend, both of the interlude tracks, “Formulate” and “Submarine”, would fit seamlessly on Empath, working as they do in a more ambient sphere where Cosentino gathers a similar assortment of synthesised noises and samples and overlays them with a diaphanous strata of cleans. Much like a maximalist postmodern novel of the early seventies, Cosentino crams so much into every second that it’s difficult to parse everything that’s going on, but one thing you can guarantee is that there’s never a dull moment.
I confess to being no expert on production techniques, but I suspect almost everything on High Rising Times is digital; the drums on some tracks are programmed, and I suspect the guitars use digital amps. Leaning so hard into a “digitised” sound can be a risky choice; when all the tracks in a composition are presented on the same Euclidian sonic plane with little dynamic differentiation, the product can sound deeply unnatural, Brechtian in its alienating artifice. But when done right, ala Devin Townsend or David Maxim Micic, such a sound can take on a counter-intuitive authenticity in all its hyper-edited, quasi-simulated glory.
In a way, this tendency towards over-production becomes one of High Rising Times’ greatest strengths. Cosentino combines the immensely layered wall-of-sound of Devin Townsend with the regal metal/orchestral melange of Wilderun. Even on Epigone (which is my personal album of the year, so far) the most impenetrable sections can sound a little muddied by sheer volume of instrumental traffic—understandably so given the scale of the compositions. Here, Cosentino is almost certainly tracking a similar number of instruments, yet each one is clear as a bell in the mix. I suspect that handling almost all elements digitally, especially drums of this unrelenting intensity, makes a significant difference to the level of control an artist can exert over the compositions’ miscibility.
And yet High Rising Times’ greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. For the most part, Cosentino pulls off the overproduction trick, but the sense of sanitisation creeps in, especially in the Empath-inspired sections, which can overstay their welcome due to their synthetic sensibility. The aforementioned Epigone by Wilderun is chaotic and a little muddy at its densest; indeed, it threatens the integrity of my speakers with its enormity. There’s a filthy pleasure in that utilisation of raw sound as geological force, and it speaks to a reverence for the natural power of music. Cosentino’s production style unnecessarily stifles that raw power and poses zero threat to my speakers. His aptitude for composition and his ability to utilise this sanitised sound to his advantage mostly make up for this lack of punch, but the balance is a precarious one. The feeling that something more lively and a little dangerous has been suppressed peeks around the corners of this record. Perhaps the easiest way to explain this contradiction would be thusly: most black metal has too lo-fi production for my tastes; High Rising Times might be a bit too hi-fi for me.
This stunning sophomore sees Christian Cosentino’s compositional capabilities reach heretofore unforeseen zeniths, but the production diminishes those vertiginous peaks, somewhat flattening out what should be a rollercoaster ride. The result is a lovingly produced, avowedly maximalist, rhapsodic work of progressive splendour that feels as though its emotional power and resonance are happening at a strange remove as though an artificial intelligence is doing its best to fool you. It’s frustrating because there’s so much I love about this album, and yet I feel as though I’m being held at arm’s length. Symphonic black metal should grab you by the throat, and Townsend-esque whimsy should tickle your heartstrings, but High Rising Times’ digitised aesthetic inhibits the otherwise wonderful music’s ability to do either. Cosentino’s passion and mastery almost make up for such a fundamental issue: I really can’t fault the music at all, and I fully believe this is a musician with a masterpiece within him. But something here is missing, and I dearly wish it wasn’t because everything else here is sublime.
Recommended tracks: Spyro, High Rising Times, Factory
You may also like: Aquilus, Iomair
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Christian Cosentino is:
– Christian Cosentino – (songwriting/composition, producer, vocals, guitars, keyboards/programming, lyrics and lyric concepts, recording, mixing and mastering)
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