Review: The Dark Atom – Foundation

Style: djent, instrumental prog metal (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Modern Day Babylon, Vildhjarta, The Algorithm, Master Boot Record, Berried Alive
Review by: Andy
Country: France
Release date: 23 June 2023

Recently, Dennis Martensson wrote a formula for djent and procedurally generated twenty hours of music with it. While the formula plays stereotypical modern instrumental prog metal for twenty whole hours–the worst nightmare of many people–the project was an interesting experiment pushing the boundaries of music composition. But regarding The Dark Atom’s eighth album of the early 2020s, I will flat out accuse the band of something similar: I do not believe there is a single non-programmed instrument or human-written riff. Of course, I wouldn’t level such a heavy accusation against an artist without some serious, SERIOUS problems (and I’m willing to retract the statement if given proof by The Dark Atom), but after several listens through of Foundation, the album is *problematic*.   

In small snippets, The Dark Atom’s sound makes sense as typical instrumental djent with flurries of staccato drum beats and difficult to count rhythms, obnoxiously low chugs, and a distinct lack of bass (except for like fifteen seconds in “Freaking Machines” which is quite the weird change). For any short clip, you’d probably be inclined to head bang to the stupidly heavy riffs and occasionally cool lead solos; if you listen for a little longer, your head would stop banging and tilt like a confused dog; if you get through all seventy-five minutes of Foundation, you’d start banging your head again… against a wall. 

First, across the entire album, the riffs simply don’t have an underlying logic guiding their composition like basically any other djent album I’ve ever heard. This sounds uncanny next to Modern Day Babylon or Vildhjarta, instead emulating the half hour of Dennis Martensson’s 10 Hours of Procedurally Generated Djent I could stomach. I could critique dozens of riffs across the album for their inhuman composition, but I’ll focus on 2:06 in “Cube.” The polyrhythm of the blasting drums underneath the arpeggiated, midi-core synth just does not compute. I would wager that some type of random number generator was used to determine what time signature the drums and synths should play in because the pulsating synths and stupid chugs are completely detached from the blast beat. 

Transitions–or the lack of any–bamboozle what could happen next. Everything is hilariously unpredictable to the point of being paradoxically predictable. The riffs make no effort to segue into each other and will ludicrously change in key and rhythm with no regard for what sounds realistic–again, I’d be shocked if a random number generator (or even an AI fed Vildhjarta and told to imitate the style) wasn’t used. Just as likely as a filthy, humongous breakdown with all sorts of weird guitar noises like bends and scrapes is a random ambient section. You never know if you’ll get a riff, breakdown, new age-y ambience, or an unholy mix of several. You can’t guess if a synth that sounds like The Algorithm or a basic-bitch djent guitar tone will have the lead spot in any given melodic section. If The Dark Atom hadn’t already released seven other albums recently or had Dennis Martensson not already released twenty hours of music in this style, I’d have told you every combination of these stupid, impenetrable, loud rhythms and melodies had already been exhausted in the seventy-five minutes of Foundation. 

Oh yeah, did I mention Foundation is SEVENTY-FIVE MINUTES LONG? I did? Well, it bears repeating. I mentioned that any single clip is fairly tolerable isolated, but Foundation becomes more and more infuriating as the runtime goes on. That isn’t helped by the most inorganic production I’ve ever heard–fitting for what’s essentially computerized modern prog metal. The drums, synth, and guitars are all squeaky clean but also fighting a war to be the loudest instrument on a release ever. I don’t want to know the dynamic range, but I’d wager I have as many eyes as the number–discounting a hypothetical third eye, too. The production gives me a headache just as much as the stupidly unpredictable chugging and Berried Alive or Rings of Saturn video game-esque guitar leads. Lucas Mann at least writes solos at an appropriate time in his tracks and not just arbitrarily on top of whatever else is haphazardly happening. 

Finally, the chugging breakdowns, sweetheart of any Vildhjarta fanboy, have no power and actually aren’t as heavy as they seemed out of context. The ones strewn across Foundation would be truly shockingly heavy, but they have no effect for two reasons: 1. Everything is so loud the volume basically doesn’t even change when a breakdown is happening. 2. There is no buildup or resolution to the breakdowns. They just materialize by chance as a building block to the song. There is no rhyme or reason. There is no performer. (There is no god.)

The midi-core aesthetic and clearly AI-generated album art (which looks hilariously like Minecraft) tipped me off that perhaps all of these instruments are synthesized, and the production and performance qualities don’t really help disprove that. While a musician can pull off fully digitized sounds to great effect (see Parannoul), Foundation comes across as sickeningly inhuman. I know that’s a wild thing to claim, but I implore you to listen for more than a couple minutes, and you’ll see. 

At first, I thought this album could be interesting because of how it kinda floated forward, never taking into account my expectations, but the more I listened the more I realized it’s my personal hell along with throngs of other prog metal fans’. This is the future of pop–AI generated music for a TikTok user’s attention span–but I hoped my beloved prog metal could avoid this sort of musical abomination for a bit longer. This may be the worst prog metal album I’ve ever heard; it isn’t as harmless as the stereotypically bad djent I thought it was at first. This is dystopian.

Recommended tracks: everything is meaningless
You may also like: Culak, Dennis Martensson, Pomegranate Tiger, Max Enix
Final verdict: 1/10

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Label: independent