Genres: post-metal, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Contortionist, Wolves in the Throne Room, the ambient parts of Cult of Luna
Country: Wisconsin, United States
Release date: 3 January 2024
Well well, long time no see. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a review, though I’ve still been around—albeit in a behind the scenes fashion. But like some sort of weird and less cool species of phoenix, I have emerged from the ashes from what was the charred remains of my drive to write reviews constantly, and all it took to shake me out of it was for a former The Contortionist member to release new music again. What can I say, I like things I like a lot, and I’m intrigued when they get mentioned.
Enter Notochord, which is born from the midwest as a new project with the original bassist (Chris Tilley) and singer (Jonathan Carpenter) of The Contortionist, as well as drummer James Knoerl and guitarist Chaboy Anthony. Notochord bill themselves as post-metal, an accurate enough description with the sensibilities shown in the guitar tones, vocal deliveries (mostly…more on that later), and the ambience used throughout (also more on that later). There are some elements of progressive metal in there, which are not so numerous as to merit more mention than that the riffs in a few songs definitely have a progressive vein to them a bit more than some other companions they have in the post-metal scene.
Aegis opens perhaps a bit hard for the balance of the EP overall with a somewhat nasty stab rhythm chord part laid over several layers of vocal and key ambience before working itself into where most of the EP lives with a dark ambient section that lasts for the remainder of the song. This is probably where my first detraction on the EP lies: the sheer amount of completely ambient sections on this (short) EP. I get this is post-metal and those posties love their soundscapes, but there is a line between ambiance used in a thought out compositional sense (Hi Language) and aimless ambience which overstays its welcome. Aegis has several moments of the latter, with two of the tracks being entirely soundscaping/instrumental post parts, and two of the remaining songs ending with back halves that are entirely meandering ambience. Ambience can definitely be cool and they meet that bar sometimes, it just feels a bit lost in its own sauce at times.
Notochord definitely shows somewhat of a range inside the genre space they are trying to occupy with the guitars. The drums have all the usual hallmarks of the modern post-metal outfit, with their laidback tom grooves interlaced some with effect cymbal accents and stop-and-start moments within the ambient sections. Over the riffier sections, they tend to have a bit more activity, a bit a la a Nero Di Marte performance of sorts, while also diving a few times into more tech-ish territory with blasts and slightly more involved fills than the typical post-metal delivery. Similarly, the guitars give you the tour of apartment post-metal lives in, though at times it does lean into some more almost Cryptodira type territory with its higher chord rhythmic parts, which to me are the moments I find myself wanting to repeat the most.
Vocally, we’ve got what Jonathan Carpenter has always brought to the table. The planetary destruction, cosmic concept type lyrics have followed him once again to this new band (read: this is not a dig at it, I’ll eat this stuff up) and are delivered with his usual see-saw from layered meditative ambient cleans to his deathcore growls. This deathcore style delivery is a bit at odds with the post-metal sound the composition lives in, though, but it does kinda work for the most part. In clean territories, his deliveries are an obvious harkening back to the way he used his cleans on “Intrinsic” more than “Exoplanet” in his The Contortionist days. Lots of layering and odd harmonies abound whenever Carpenter is living in this space. At times it seems like Carpenter has almost copied a bit from his successor in The Contortionist Michael Lessard, with the odd harmonies and even inflection in the voice warping a bit to feel much more like Lessard delivery than old-school Carpenter, not necessarily a knock at Carpenter, just something interesting to note.
Overall, Aegis is solid enough for a first effort in the post-metal space, though I feel like it is still trying to find where it lives. There are absolute moments it feels like this EP finds what it really wants to be, such as in the final track “Cognition Fields,” which exits from the preceding ambience into something that resembles an Exoplanet-esque breakdown albeit in a more post-metal tone and delivery. This is the song in which the harshes feel the most congruent with what they are on top of, and the later layering on top of the slightly altered version of this breakdown serves as a great closing to the EP. Were this EP more often in that space I’d probably like it even more, but unfortunately the way it is delivered now feels a bit too much like moments of great delivery and heaviness separated by often too-long ambient sections that self relegate themselves to background noise most of the time. Aegis for me succeeds most when it lives on the metal side of post-metal than when it camps out in the post. For those really into the ambient parts of post-metal but also wanna hear a bit of a slammy interruption to that now and then, this would be for you. For those of you that saw the names tied to this and expected Exoplanet or something similar, you’re actually looking for Prismatic.
Recommended tracks: Indelible, Abyssal Ontogeny, Cognition Fields
You may also like: Kayo Dot, Artificial Brain
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Label: Independent
Notochord is:
– Jonathan Carpenter (vocals, keys)
– Chaboy Anthony (guitars)
– James Knoerl (drums)
– Chris Tilley (bass, keys)
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