Review: Uncomfortable Knowledge – Lifeline

Genres: Post-Metal, Stoner Metal, Doom Metal (mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Baroness, Katatonia, Cult of Luna
Country: France
Release date: 2 February 2024

Those who have followed my reviews for any period of time know that I am, above all else, a sucker for a good melody, one whose ear latches onto hooks more eagerly than a starving rainbow trout. Sure, I enjoy a good bit of complex texture and rhythm as much as the next prog fan, but without a clear, memorable tune to hold it together, it all tends to blur together into a bunch of noise in my brain. For the most part, I’m good at recognizing albums that come from the more atonal or harsh sides of music and leaving them to my colleagues, realizing that the Zachs and Andys of the world will be a more receptive audience. Every so often, though, a Trojan Horse of an album comes along, one that claims to make overtures towards the melodic side of things but ends up sounding flat, awkward, and half-baked. This is what French post/stoner metal quintet Uncomfortable Knowledge have inflicted upon me with their latest record, Lifeline.

Oh, it starts out inoffensively enough—”Earth” starts with some perfectly serviceable atmospheric string textures underlying a decent, if rather boilerplate guitar lead that becomes harmonized as the energy builds. But then Guillaume Sabatier’s vocals kick in, and any semblance of tunefulness flies out the window. Look, to be clear, I don’t need every vocalist I hear to be singing out catchy pop choruses 24/7- plenty of my favorite metal albums have featured a frontman ripping out harsh screams and growls that leave the melodic heavy lifting to riffs and orchestration. But the thing is, in case you didn’t catch that tag up top, Sabatier does not scream, nor does he really growl. Instead, his approach is a loud yet oddly flat-sounding yell, one that, for reasons unknown, spends a good chunk of Lifeline in near-complete monotone. He’s technically singing notes, and sometimes even makes the effort to sing a different note than the one he just sang, but that just deepens the frustrating uncanny-valley nature of it all. You would expect a voice like this to be belting rough-and ready melodies a la Baroness‘s John Baizley, but instead he just sort of… sits there, and it’s maddening. It would at least be tolerable if he leaned into his unrefined timbre and put some piss and vinegar into his performance, but no—his shouts somehow sound halfhearted, as if he’s actively being bored by his own music. Any attempts at adding actual attitude or aggression, such as the intro to “She Was the Moon”, fall miserably flat and come off as cringey, nu-metal tough guy posturing.

Alright, so I’ve just spent way too many words shitting on the vocals of some dude who, I presume, was just trying his best. But metal is not built on vocals alone—there are four other members in this band; maybe their performances are strong enough to counteract some dodgy “singing.” Unfortunately, while the musicianship on display here is nowhere near bad enough to dig Lifeline deeper into the hole Sabatier has buried it in, it ain’t exactly digging it out either. I would describe most of the riffs here as “functional”; Adrien Tirel clearly knows his way around a heavy stoner-metal guitar tone, but while a good stoner riff is heavy like a slow, crushing steamroller, most of the riffs here are heavy like a big, clunky armoire. Some show more signs of life than others, but for the most part there’s a lack of motion and intention here, with chunky chords following one another more out of obligation than active desire. Guillaume Tirel’s bass fills out the low end of the sound with a reasonable thickness but does precious little to stand out. Robin Olivier’s drums fare better—his fills add a sorely needed sense of energy and urgency to tracks like “Blindfolded Fool”, though their production could use a bit more oomph. Speaking of sorely needed, Sebastien Henderschiett’s guitar leads add a welcome layer of tunefulness to the proceedings. They’re not particularly virtuosic, and they often feel like a countermelody to a main vocal line that forgot to show up, but they’re something, and I appreciate that.

You see, I don’t want to make it seem like Lifeline is a worthless album because there are some positives here. Perhaps the most promising aspect of Lifeline is its approach to texture; while they don’t luxuriate in minutes-long buildups the way their post-metal influences such as Cult of Luna tend to, they still have a knack for incorporating layers of instrumentation in a way that complements their big, thick riffs and offsets the otherwise basic-sounding nature of it all. Whether it’s the stately trumpet fanfares that chime in throughout “149.6”, the genuinely lovely bit of violin counterpoint in the bridge of the title track, or the cinematic strings and synths that underpin the entire album, there’s a lot to like orchestration-wise. 

In general, Uncomfortable Knowledge are at their most palatable when they slow down, let the textures breathe, and have Sabatier actually try to sing rather than yell in his nasal monotone. Sections like the enjoyably morose midsection of “The Astral Mark” and the dynamic buildups in closer “An Empty Heart Can’t Break” (one of the few songs in which the shouted vocals sound like they have genuine feeling behind them) show this clearly. If they can lean into the more emotionally-driven aspects of their sound, amp up the creativity in the soundscapes, and get their frontman some singing lessons, they’ve got the potential to pull out a pretty solid album of Katatonia-esque, prog-tinged doom metal. For now, though, their Lifeline may be keeping them from drowning, but it’ll need some more force to pull them from the waters of mediocrity.

Recommended tracks: Lifeline, The Astral Mark, An Empty Heart Can’t Break
You may also like: Madder Mortem, Athemon
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Uncomfortable Knowledge is:
– Guillaume Sabatier (Vocals)
– Adrien Tirel (Guitar)
– Sebastien Hinderschiett (Lead Guitar)
– Guillaume Tirel (Bass)
– Robin Olivier (Drums)