No one’s credited for the artwork, but I can only assume The Loot Experiment did it.
Style: Progressive metal (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Plini, Animals as Leaders, Dream Theater, Native Construct
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 26 December, 2024
For about six months last year, something strange happened. I didn’t listen to even the slightest bit of metal, and instead, turned my attention to rap. After watching Kendrick Lamar’s brutal murder of the artist formerly known as Drake, I couldn’t help but be astounded at the innovation on what I consider to be the weakest link of the entire genre: the diss track. Instrumental prog is a lot like a diss track in the way I feel both serve absolutely no purpose—until they do. For every ‘Meet the Grahams’, there’s a thousand manufactured beefs for publicity’s sake. For every Conquering Dystopia, there’s a million other bands who really, really want to be Intervals.
Even in my days of thinking that r/progmetal gave good recommendations, I never understood the obsession with Sithu Aye and Scale the Summit. Talented as they are, it all amounts to a whole lot of showing off without the songwriting to back it up. “But Zach, you idiot!” I hear you shout, “You like tech-death! What about that?” Well, for every Archspire, there are many more Brain Drills. What separates the two examples above is allowing the melodic instrumentals to shine above a sea of blast-beats and rapid-fire growls, and to give the songs room to breathe despite a blazing fast tempo. Keith Merrow and Jeff Loomis of Conquering Dystopia err more on the side of death metal stylings, making their instrumentals stand out without a screaming vocalist to back them up. There’s only so many scales that can be innovated on before all you’re doing is playing a Plini song in a different order.
The Loot Experiment is neither Sithu Aye nor Plini, where he’s built up enough of a following to sustain himself: TLE is a guy, a guitar, and a dream. Andy reviewed his last EP, Into the Ether, early last year, which was a showcase of someone with a lot of raw talent and none of the songwriting chops to back it up. Couple that with an amateurish, self-made production job, and you’ve got yourself a record that nobody but Andy and his infinite spreadsheet remembered much of anything about. But now, TLE is back with a vengeance, ready to show the world what he and his incredible shredding skills are capable of.
Without a well-known master-er (Jamie King of Between the Buried and Me fame), there’d basically be nothing on Fractured Realty to talk about. This is paint by numbers prog metal, right down to the very first riff. Chug-diggy-diggy-chug-chug. You have heard this in a million different variations, and even if the record started with generic, space-y synths, I’d have preferred it to this. ‘Terraformer’ sets the tone of this album all too well, and when TLE is done tearing up that riff, he goes into a lead section that’s about as interesting as watching glaciers move.
In the entire twenty-minute runtime, not a single interesting section or riff appears. TLE defaults to the standard chugga-chugga with your standard minor scale runs and shreds in between.
On repeat.
Forever.
With ‘Terraformer’ basically being the same two sections twice over, I didn’t have high hopes for ‘Maadi’. And what do you know? More of the same. It’s almost as if TLE is afraid to innovate on an already beaten formula, and I’m not quite sure why. Every song’s lead section feels like TLE is holding back when he should be shredding, and shredding when he should be letting the rest of the programmed band speak for themselves.
Jamie King’s spit-shine and polish can only add so much to Fractured Reality. And yet, I certainly can’t call TLE a bad musician—because he’s not. Like his debut, there’s a shit-ton of raw talent here that needs other ideas in the pot to balance it all out. Not every song needs ten-thousand guitar effects to be interesting, nor does every riff need to be mind-numbingly rhythmic. Not every one-man band is Dessiderium, and another person to help beef up the songwriting is maybe just what this project needs for success.
The Loot Experiment, my hat goes off to you. Finding yourself amidst a sea of artists all doing the same thing, and attempting to charge forth and carve your name must be terrifying. As a musician who’s far too nervous to upload anything of his own, I commend the effort you put into crafting this album. However, stop trying to innovate on the diss track of prog-metal. Instru-prog can and only will be pushed so far by the titans of the genre, and you have to take a step back and ask yourself where it’s going wrong. You can’t stand out when everyone’s doing much of the same.
Recommended tracks: Fractured Reality
You may also like: The Dark Atom, Regressor
Final verdict: 4.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify
Label: Unsigned
The Loot Experiment is:
– Mark Harding (everything)
