Style: Progressive Deathcore, Modern Progressive Metal (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: US-MN
Release date: 03 December, 2021
A long time ago, one of my favorite genres of music was progressive deathcore. Ok, who am I kidding, it’s still one of my favorites. One of the greatest prog deathcore bands I revere is The Contortionist, and though they have changed their sound since, their first two albums I will always consider classics. Recently I have discovered what I believe to be a spiritual successor to that classic TC sound, Intrinsic’s Event Horizon.
Event Horizon is Intrinsic’s debut album that was four years in the making. I reached out to the band about their inspirations for the album, they explained that because the writing took place over such a large timespan, there are multiple influences such as Fallujah, VOLA, Between The Buried and Me, and The Contortionist (TC). While I am sure this is the truth, it seems apparent to me that TC was their greatest source of inspiration given the band name.
When I first played Event Horizon there was one thing that stood out to me as extraordinary, the harsh vocals. The harsh vocals, when they do appear, are so crisp and natural, which leads me to believe that the vocalist Dallas Baldwin was raised by grizzly bears. There is no other explanation for such a brutal growl sounding so second nature; growling has to be his mother tongue! I only wish there was a little bit more variation in the vocals. “Cause and Effect” has a great super deep guttural low which precedes a “blegh” (I love that). However, throughout the album he doesn’t frequent those super low notes, and the same can be said about higher pitched screams as well.
The instrumental portion of the music is extremely well executed too. Chris and James on guitars can go from ambient and lightweight picking, to super thick, heavy, full riffs in a heartbeat. They leave a lot of negative space and show their skill without shredding constantly, this is often accompanied with fills by Erin on the drums. You can especially hear his technical prowess in the softer parts of “Inertia” during the first minute, as well as the groovy bridge around the halfway mark. He is accurate and crisp in the heavier portions of the album, but I find the softer areas leave space for him to push towards the forefront more.
While I think each member of the band are exceptional musicians, there are a few faults with Event Horizon. The back half of the album is a bit drawn out because it has a few more of the longer songs. Whereas the front half is very strong with “Inertia” and “Perpetual Motion” kicking off the album. Additionally the songs that exceeded seven minutes in length generally had less of a hook to them, without a prominent recurring melody or chorus. This isn’t a major issue because some songs did feel like an ever evolving journey, which was cool… but it would be awesome to have something like Between The Buried and Me‘s “Ants Of The Sky”. That song is all over the place, but still manages to allude to that epic riff from the beginning throughout the song, and reinvents the riff at the end of the song.
Intrinsic are great at what they do, but for some reason I didn’t love Event Horizon as much as I expected I would. I thought they would fill the void that TC left when they started getting softer. Then I realized what was happening, listening to this album made me want to listen to TC. While Event Horizon is a good album, it leaves me craving more. It isn’t precise enough to replace TC’s Intrinsic or Exoplanet, yet it also isn’t original enough to be super unique or revolutionary. I did catch hints of other influences here and there, but there wasn’t much in this album that was like “Woah, that was a really cool and different take on prog deathcore!” Nevertheless, Event Horizon is still well done despite sounding a little too familiar, and I have high hopes for Intrinsic’s next release!
Recommended tracks: Inertia, Perpetual Motion, Deva
Recommended for fans of: The Contortionist, Stargazer, Between The Buried and Me
You may also like: Sleep Labs
Final verdict: 6.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Intrinsic is:
– Dallas Baldwin (vocals)
– James Kunau (guitars)
– Chris Zywicki (guitars)
– Erin Bekkers (drums)
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