Review: Contemplation & Chrono.fixion – Brain Mechanics

Style: avant-garde/symphonic death/doom, ambient dubstep, post rock, krautrock (harsh vocals, spoken word)
Recommended for fans of: Godspeed You Black Emperor, Virgin Black
Review by: Andy
Country: France
Release date: 23 March, 2023

Now two weeks since the release of Ne Obliviscaris’ landmark fourth album, Exul, I’m back in the trenches reviewing albums that are unfortunately not Exul. In order to be a fair critic to what I claimed, I knew that I needed to pick something drastically different from the typical fare this week: “normal” progressive metal just wouldn’t have a fair shot compared to the resplendent musical perfection of NeO. While scraping the bottom of the underground barrel, I found a Bandcamp only project of artist Matthieu Ducheine, converging his two disparate entities–Contemplation and Chrono.fixion–into a single project, Brain Mechanics. And the mixing of a symphonic death/doom band and an ambient dubstep band is just as weird and different as I’d hoped. 

In Contemplation’s “Préparation Mentale,” violins hum a melody redolent of a film score, replete with drama and tension as the dynamic pizzicato swells into the first movement of the triptych suite, “Brain Mechanics.” Ducheine’s hefty guitar work alternates between simple doom riffs and the occasional piercing lead, reminding me of Virgin Black. Moreover, the simplistic death/doom riffage provides a template for more interesting orchestrations to ornament. When the Chrono.fixion aspect of Ducheine’s brain takes control such as in Part 2 of “Brain Mechanics,” even more interesting things happen. Bass-heavy synths drone in an almost krautrock way, and the way in which the natural sounding strings interact with the more electronic ambient dub astonishes.

Woefully, next to the Chrono.fixion or fully collaborative sections, Contemplation alone feels a bit hollow–as if the riffs lack an extra captivating factor, especially in segments without careful string accompaniment. Contemplation does at least utilize the strong string compositions most of the time, of course, but except for the climax of “La Révolution n’est Pas un Dîner de Gala,” a moment I’ll return to, the doomier side of this project lacks something that Chrono.fixion has. For instance, in “Brain Mechanics, Pt. 3: Propaganda,” the bands (or separate aspects of Ducheine’s own creative mind, more accurately) craft a song which borders on Bruit ≤ almost with pulsing, electronica-influenced post rock and spoken word. Since Brain Mechanics is a one man band, I find it a little strange you can tell where the Chrono.fixion elements and Contemplation ones switch off in these collaborative songs–gentler transitions between the styles would work better. 

The two halves work on their own best in the second half of the album, leading to a bit of backloading, but the consecutive “The Contemplators” and “La Révolution n’est Pas un Dîner de Gala” show off Ducheine’s multifaceted strengths as a composer and performer best. In Chrono.fixion’s “The Contemplators,” intriguing strings mix with those bass-forward synths, and on top of it all, Chrono.fixion impose a groove like Future Jesus & The Electric Lucifer that seriously makes me want to get up and bust a move. The previously mentioned climax of “La Révolution…” transitions from a riff with stringent violin until it dramatically cuts back to spoken word, then a grand pause, into a huge metal section. And finally, the song bursts open to the heavens in a luxurious, black metal crescendo. Ducheine’s ability to build-ups and release tension throughout Brain Mechanics is quite impressive but none more so than this orchestrated black metal maelstrom. 

I’d love to hear more of this project where Ducheine fully commits to merging the two bands instead of keeping it so strangely segregated. Dis Pater (Midnight Odyssey) once released a three-way split with himself (as in all three were his own one-man projects, a hilariously absurd prospect), but on his next release, Shards of Silver Fade, he condensed all the ideas and executions of those bands into a single behemoth album, which is often lauded as his magnum opus. Ducheine doing something similar would certainly yield the best results if Brain Contemplation and its strengths are any indication. 

Recommended tracks: Brain Mechanics, Pt. 3: Propaganda, The Contemplators, La Révolution n’est Pas un Dîner de Gala
You may also like: Vitam Aeternam, Future Jesus & The Electric Lucifer, Bruit ≤, Rise to the Sky, Colosseum
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Metal-Archives page

Label: independent

Contemplation and Chrono.fixion are:
– Matthieu Ducheine (vocals, instruments)