There are plenty of metal bands offering a dual vocal attack of melodically flighted female and aggressively bearing male vocals but it seems predominantly they veer towards one or the other in songs rather than truly merging them. For us it feels like a great many miss out on their potential by keeping them distinctly apart and that view has only been reinforced by British progressive/melodic metallers Metaprism. The sextet from Bournemouth are certainly unafraid to push a ‘beauty and the beast’ styled attack into one tempest of adventure and expression and it has resulted in a quite impressive and riveting debut. Their three track EP is a seducing brawl which is so much more than just the vocals, though they do steal plenty of the attention; it a roaring fire of endeavour and imagination which suggests that though still exploring its potential, Metaprism is a proposition set for big things over near horizons.
The band was formed in 2012 by guitarist Ollie Roberts who linking up with vocalist Theresa Smith began writing songs immediately aiming for their first release. The addiction of vocalist Jut Tabor, bassist Mike West, drummer Jonny Wilmott, and live guitarist Jimmy Alford has thrust the band forward on all fronts, Metaprism already in its short time sharing stages with the likes of Sacred Mother Tongue, I Am I, and Evil Scarecrow whilst the EP is brewing up a keen appetite for the band with fans and underground media alike. With an album planned before the end of the year, the band makes a striking entrance with a release and sound which is mature and invigoratingly shapely, a dramatic hint of things to come you can only surmise.
Opening track Even the Lights rises from a gloriously captivating intro, sonic intrigue and vocal mists expanding to cup an expulsion of stirring riffs, crisp beats, and immediately a web of guitar sculpted melodic toxicity which winds seductively around ears and attention. It is a potent design which has thoughts and appetite wide awake; not an over dramatic entrance but one which has everything focused on its impending narrative. The song next steps into a commanding stride as riffs and drums find a carnivorous breath to their bait, the excellent raw roars of Jut standing voraciously in the midst of the torrent to be soon followed by the melodic beauty of Smith’s tones and his return with clean and just as strong tones. Within a few seconds the song vocally has captured the imagination, both protagonists tempering and contrasting each other and themselves magnificently. It is a treat to hear, our earlier mentioned thoughts fed whilst musically the band and track equally sparks an overwhelmingly satisfied reaction with further predatory and sonically crafted invention. As proven by the song, the band is also skilled at merging styles and voracious ideation into their exploits, stern rugged breakdowns and metalcore rapaciousness as at home in the premise as progressive flights and melodically brewed colours.
The following Lost in the Dark takes little time in continuing the inspiring incitement of invention and passion, guitars with great ragged scything riffs and rhythms as a vindictive assailant forging a corruptive provocation as Smith and Tabor embrace and stalk the emerging magnetic canvas of the song respectively and simultaneously. It is a masterful piece of songwriting and voracious realisation, like a fusion of Delain meets Suicide Silence but different again. Cantankerous predation and smouldering elegance make a mutual bed within the song as potently and successfully as the band vocally mixes varying attacks and varied energies which ebb and flow within an overall rapacious urgency. It is mouthwatering skill and adventure the band impressively seek and craft which things like the breath-taking guitar enterprise of Roberts and unrelenting rhythmic persuasion of West and Wilmott only paint and push to greater success.
The release is completed by Against All, a song which initially is not as striking as the previous pair but soon recruits full attentive appetite with its flowing melodies and vociferous muscular incitement, and of course the continuing to impress vocals and guitar weaves. The song never quite reaches the heights set but still continues to reveal more of the scope and creativity within the sound and invention of Metaprism, groaning short grooves and sharp sonic sculpting a transfixing hue within the at times rabid rhythmic quality and vocal richness of the song.
Expect to hear a great deal more of Metaprism. Their EP feels like it is just an appetiser for bigger and grander exploits, something it is hard not to anticipate their debut album being the provider.
The Metaprism EP is available now @ http://metaprism.bandcamp.com/album/metaprism-ep
https://www.facebook.com/Metaprism
9/10
RingMaster 25/05/2014
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