THE CONTORTIONIST : Clairvoyant (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Formed ten years ago in Indiana, The Contortionist will have made its musical revolution in only four albums with the change of singer. Author of a first opus with devastating deathcore violence ("Exoplanet" in 2010), followed by a progressive death metal album with often djent rhythms ("Intrinsic", 2012), The Contortionist began a musical turn with the arrival of Michael Lessard, who relegated the growls to a small portion and propelled the band towards a modern and atmospheric progressive metal with the release of "Language" in 2014.

With "Clairvoyant", The Contortionist takes it to a new level, redrawing the contours of progressive metal and building bridges between styles. The journey begins with the album's long introduction ('Monochrome, Passive'). Welcomed by a powerful metal riff, the listener quickly discovers the richness of a floydian atmospheric melody and will only have to let himself be guided during almost an hour. An hour of pure auditory pleasure, lulled by the soft and enveloping voice of Michael Lessard with a tone close to a Steve Hogarth who would have stopped complaining.

All the strength and the beauty of the album reside in its exceptional coherence in spite of the great variety of the proposed atmospheres. The band excels in transitions, passing from pop melodies evoking the late Dredg ('Godspeed') to more atmospheric tracks close to Katatonia ('Reimagined') or Tesseract ('Absolve'), alternating arpeggios typical of progressive rock ('The Center') and soaring and bewitching passages ('Return To Earth') and succeeding in the perfect synthesis between metal and progressive, pop vocals and djent rhythm on the magnificent 'Relapse'.

It is then time to slowly come down, to come back to reality, to put an end to the trip. This difficult task falls to the most atmospheric track of the album, 'Monochrome (Pensive)', whose superb melody and guitar chords played in octaves in the manner of Anathema will leave the listener in an ecstatic state, unable to bring himself to leave the adventure.

Of course the perfect album does not exist. Of course the fans of The Contortionist from the beginning will judge 'Clairvoyant' too progressive, not metal enough. But for all the music lovers, 'Clairvoyant' is a summit of intelligence of the compositions, of melodic precision and of class in the interpretation. A real work of goldsmith refined by musicians in a state of grace. A unique and rare work. - Official website

THE CONTORTIONIST

CLAIRVOYANT

EONE MUSIC

PROGRESSIVE METAL