Style: Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Djent (Mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend, Native Construct, Troldhaugen
Review by: Mathis
Country: Australia
Release date: 09 September, 2022
When I first heard of Toehider’s upcoming release I Have Little To No Memory Of These Memories (IHLTNMOTM), I expected the album would be focusing on memory loss and mental health. Boy was I wrong; IHLTNMOTM is in fact a story about the opposite of memory loss, sudden and unexpected memory gain. Woah, the album title makes way more sense now!
Staying true to the reputation Toehider has made for themselves, IHLTNMOTM is an outlandish adventure that’s as unpredictable as a carnie on crack. The album is all over the place, that’s what I’m getting at here. What’s more, Toehider crammed and jammed all of this insanity into one track for your listening convenience – one single forty-eight minute track. The story is presented as segments or chapters throughout the song, each chapter acting as a unique “song” with little to no concern of the genre that preceded it in the last chapter. Speaking of genres, there is quite a range! Power metal, 80s pop, progressive rock, progressive metal, djent, classic rock, and the list can go on and on if you get nitpicky.
Prologue:
The narrator prepares to usher the listener through the odd story of three individuals and how their lives begin to intertwine. The narrator is outside of the story, but without a doubt one of the best characters with his unscripted satirical banter. In a Deadpool sort of fashion the narrator occasionally goes off on tangents like “The saga starts one Sunday (maybe Saturday… hey, who can say? Those minor points are inconsequential anyway)”, and then proceeds with proper narration. The Prologue is especially silly, because the narrator layers beautiful harmonies in a barbershop quartet meets Queen A Cappella style, rather than just telling the story in a drab traditional manner.
Chapters 1 – 2:
Following a short interlude, chapter one introduces us to our first nameless character only after the narrator has a brief rant about traffic. The on-call fireman is sitting in the cab of the fire engine as it races through the streets on the way to a house fire. The narrator explains that the fireman has a perfect memory due to a condition known as hyperthymesia, but while sitting in the fire engine he has a vivid memory of events that have never happened to him before. Reflecting the chaos the fireman experiences both internal and external, a suspenseful progressive metal segment plays filled with synths, similar to Voyager but with less djent. However, as the fireman’s mind drifts into his newfound memories the “track” gradually grows softer with the narrator describing a tragic inhuman world that appears to be in decay.
Paying homage to Bonnie Tyler in the sickest way possible, the other two main characters are introduced in chapter two of IHLTNMOTM. The second chapter shares multiple commonalities with Tyler’s “Holding On For A Hero,” a woman who needs a hero, a burning house, that kind of stuff. Violating likely every fire safety code, the hoarder finds herself amidst a raging house fire, and with flammables on all sides the house graciously welcomes the flames. It just so happens that the hoarder’s house is the very same house that the fireman is making his way to right now. The hoarder is trapped, boarded in by all her crap. Amidst all the chaos she falls, and of course she gets to experience Murphy’s Law firsthand. She trips over a hat rack among all the junk and falls, an avalanche of stuff tumbles down with her knocking her unconscious. In her unconscious state her mind is ravaged by new memories. As the fireman works on extinguishing the flames he catches a glimpse of the third main character gracefully entering the burning house. Moments later the hoarder is carried out of the flames by her rescuer, our third and final character subject to the memory madness. The brave shoe-billed stork.
Chapters 3 – Epilogue
If you think I’m gonna cover this WHOLE story then you’re mistaken! This review would be far too long, I mean the album title is a full sentence itself. However, I can get you excited by sharing sneak peaks of what’s to come. The fireman, hoarder, and shoe-billed stork venture to the source of their infiltrated minds by wild means of transportation, the same inhuman planet that the fireman saw in his new memories. They learn the reason why they have all been experiencing anomalies in their heads, there’s 80’s montage music, more shenanigans from the narrator, and a dude named Bralien. I bet you are intrigued now, and to heighten your listening experience I’d advise you listen with a good set of headphones to catch all the nuance and little motifs throughout I Have Little To No Memories Of These Memories.
Admittedly I was skeptical of how Toehider would be able to handle such a bizarre project. I’ve heard eight minute songs that felt like a lifetime, but I was thoroughly captivated and never bored one bit by this forty-eight minute long song. The chapters flow in and out surprisingly well considering the vast genre coverage; the storyline, characters, and satire all work perfectly. Devin Townsend, Native Construct, Others by No One, and whatever other wacky acts out there are shaking in their boots right now. Toehider has had a consistent discography, but I was blown away by this album. Toehider has utterly annihilated my expectations.
Recommended tracks: I Have Little To No Memories of These Memories
You may also like: Exxperior, Others by No One, Rototypical
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Toehider is: Micheal Mills
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