Earthside :"Let the Truth Speak"

 

A minute into the first song it is evident we are dealing with top-tier musicians. The drumming is nuanced and technically flawless. The razzle-dazzle of this kind of brilliance is impressive, but just wonderous playing in and of itself can not carry an album, even if it is progressive rock. The telling factor for this album will be how memorable the songs are.  Much of this brand of progressive metal feels like the emphasis is on the progressive side and less on the metal, as a dialed-in distortion and a few chugs in a dropped tuning do not make you a metal band. Metal is about aggression, if it is dark then even better. This album features a different vocalist for each track. Keturah a Canadian singer, who is very technically sound, with a very precise pitch and delivery, but much like many progressive singers, sounds to me like they are too refined. Like they need to spend less time with their vocal coach and more time experiencing real-life emotional trauma to convince me what they are doing has any soul to it. 

The production is flawless and all the sounds captured are pristine, almost to a fault. Pritam of the New Delhi-based band Aarlon for the song "Tyranny". It is well crafted and very melodic, but in a similar vein as a band like Sleep Token, which is marketed as metal, but really sounds like a grandiose pop power ballad.Pritam is a dynamic singer and can bring it from his guts as called for, but much like the first singer I feel metal is just a hat he is wearing, not truly feeling, there is no struggle he is screaming against. Music for outsiders it is the plights life throws against you that make the struggle inspired. I want metal singers who are nihilistic Satanists, drug addicts, mentally ill, or trying to overcome a world they are left on the outside of and looking in. 

Aj Channer from Fire From the Gods drops a vocal for "Pattern of Rebirth". He is yet another non-metal singer who sings for a metal band making pop music. He is however effective at what he does, and his performance here is in line with the quality of singing that is consistent with who he is as a performer. This makes for perhaps the album's strongest song. "Watching the Earth Sink" is a melodic instrumental that builds off a gradual dynamic, to something that is almost more djent in timing. The guitar solos it showcases, remind me of Joe Satrinani in the way they are phrased. 

Tower of Power's Larry Braggs handled the vocals for the ballad "The Lesser Evil" This highlights the fact they are not really attempting to be a metal band on this song. Harder guitar slowly works its way in as the Saxophone of Sam Gendel, brings things to a funkier place. I prefer the more ambient " Denial's Aria" with Vikke handling vocals and the harp duo Duo Scorpio, performing with them. "Vespers" after this is an intangible cloud of atmosphere. Tesseract singer Daniel Hopkins croons over "Let the Truth Speak". He projects his voice with impressive power when called upon to do so./I also like the more Tool-centric groove of the song. When this song is jammed down into a more introspect dimension. 

Baard Kolstad of Leprous plays drums on the last song. He might be the most metal element of the album given his time with Borknager. His drumming is impressive as the song builds, but the throbbing instrumental is a collection of cool sounds being moved rather than telling much of a story. This album is well constructed, performed, and produced, but do not feel a lot from its soul, I will give it a 8.5, as there are a few strong songs, but for my personal tastes feels a little sterile and soft. 

Let The Truth Speak by Earthside

TesseracT : "War of Being"

Most of the big bands that once occupied the djent scene, shed that passing fad and if they were worthwhile evolved into progressive metal bands. Since we have never given this band a shot, it seems testing our theory of where djent bands migrate to should be put to the test. The first track certainly points in that direction. The guitars might have that lingering chug that once characterized the genre, but the vocals soar when sung. It's growls that bring it back to where they came from. My theory regarding djent is that it is the nu-metal of the millennium, but never had the lasting impact, in fact last month Coal Chamber proved they actually aged better than those bands. Perhaps the fact this band is from the UK helps tone down some of the more generic elements that came from djent. 

The drum triggered grooves, point to a sound that is very produced, but it works against them less than other bands doing similar. When we get to "Echoes" it does not feel very heavy, in fact I would be more likely to think of them as progressive rock than progressive metal. The vocals are pretty soulful, almost to the point of having a pop or r&b feel. The groove to "the Grey" is pretty impressive and it almost convinces us. But the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make, so early impressions have to be tempered by the direction the song takes. In the first minute and a half their are more twists and turns than what some bands have on their entire album. What this song makes pretty obvious is their bass player is a fucking champ. What works with this song is all their cool math tricks are balances out with memorable melodic moments that make you want to hear it out. 

I am noticing how at times these guys remind me of Issues. That is better than reminding me of Dream Theater. "Legion " finds them thumping to a similar pulse that you expect more from the prog side of what they do. The more dynamically pounding moments are not that heavy, but for what they are going for I guess they do not have to be. "Tender" pretty much sticks to the ballad formula. I think the fact this is done in a manner that is not very dark makes me adverse to it.  Even when they add the power part of the power ballad formula, it does not feel that heavy. 

The title track is a massive 11 minute journey, they do a lot in a minute so imagine eleven of them. They hammer their math with more force, which is also more akin to djent, but it works for what is going down here. The way this track progresses it's almost like have 11 songs crammed into one. They do not return to many of the same themes. The draw back to this is when they do catch lightning in their bottle it's not returned to so you can fully enjoy it. There are not many 11 minute songs that are going to inspire me to invest that time into them for another listen, and this one might be impressive in terms of musical ability expressed, but nothing hooks me to it beyond that initial wonderment, in fact eight minutes in it begins to feel a little tedious. I find myself having to take breaks and return to it. I mentioned Dream Theater previously and while I am not having to eat my words, they do go off into a brighter soaring section that reminds me of Dream Theater more than I would like it to. 

After that song it's easy to get through five minutes of "Sirens" even if it is a bit of a ballad. Their singer is like the other musicians technically sound, but perhaps too much so . He is great at softer more pop tones, but sometimes could use more personality in them. The bass player comes to rescue things with his stellar line to "Burden". This helps the singer have a better playing field to navigate. Granted things sour a bit on the chorus , but the rest of their playing balances things out. This song balances the two different directions this album wants to go in well. The last song is anthemic in the most generic manner possible but executed by skilled musicians, at the end of the day it proves not matter how good you are if you write flower fluff, it is going to be flowery fluff. I will give this album an 8, it's really well executed and occasional well written, though nothing catches me as being memorable aside from a couple song, so the execution and production is what helped it score that high.