With influences to its breeding ranging from “70’s/80’s Rush and Genesis to more modern prog like Dream Theatre and Between the Buried and Me” it was hard to exactly imagine what the debut album from UK metallers Redshift was going to offer. It was an intrigue though rewarded with a release which was as unpredictable as it was fascinating and only increasingly enjoyable by the listen.
Their sound is tagged as progressive metal but that only gives one aspect of the Bath trio’s sound. It embraces extreme metal textures as easily and readily as melodic and classic hues, the band’s technical prowess just as ripe and open within the creative tapestry. For personal appetites there are moments which simply enthral and other times where the record merely held keen intrigue yet from start to finish Cataclysm held court on ears and attention and as mentioned with increasing success.
A concept album depicting the story of an invasion like no other around an engrossing lyrical thread based around honour, love, and a devastating apocalyptic event, the Ben Turner produced and Jamie King (Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist) mastered Cataclysm easily lured attention with its opener, Overture: Something In The Sky. Immediately the technical craft of the band engaged; the guitar of Joshua Boniface casting a lure of intimation before showing its feral side alongside the driving rhythmic incitement of drummer Jack Camp and the rich lines of bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Liam Fear. The instrumental with its progressive suggestiveness effortlessly had the imagination weaving before the full force of Invasion descends.
The second track rises up from the formers portentous calm, almost hunting the senses and conjuring thoughts before rushing their barricades with vocal causticity amidst guitar spun wiring. The unpredictability and imagination of the band’s sound is soon properly unveiled, the song an aural kaleidoscope of flavours and sonic grains all designed to spread the tale and entice firm attention. Extreme and seductive textures continue to fluidly collude across the compelling proposition, the band’s progressive instincts seemingly honing the attributes of everything unveiled before Call to Arms stirred things up further with defiance and aggression. Yet it too brings an infectious melodic essence to its eruption, the mellower calms in between like the verbal and sonic narrator to the blossoming conflict. As the album itself both are tracks which reveal a little more by the listen, the richness of their narrative and bodies only thickened over time.
Promises provides a melodic amnesty to the friction, its unsettled piano crafted repose the calm before the storm, a tempest announced by church bell chimes and unleashed by the outstanding Fire, Smoke and Thunder. It devours the senses instantly, every angle of its attack carnivorous but equally voraciously virulent, ferocity and barbarous intent in league with dextrous progressively hued enterprise throughout. Easily our favourite track within Cataclysm, it tips a great potent release over into rousingly impressive if leaving the final pair of tracks the unenviable challenge of following its triumph.
Both May Fate Rest Upon You and The Last Stand may miss out rivalling their predecessor but both escalate the album’s appeal, the first with its classic hues over appetite nagging technical prowess and the closing track through its evocative atmosphere and expressive melodic radiance, a redolent beauty across a mercurial landscape which is never far from erupting and at times does so with rapacious agility and expectations defeating invention.
The final song also epitomises the unpredictable nature of album and sound, a core reason of its perpetual fascination and temptation and even after numerous plays we are discovering fresh things to chew on and enjoy within Cataclysm. Suggested as an album for fans of bands such as Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and Dream Theater, Redshift has provided something well worth checking out for anyone with a taste for adventure.
Cataclysm is available now digitally and on CD @ https://redshiftband.bandcamp.com/releases
https://www.facebook.com/RedshiftBandUK/ https://twitter.com/RedshiftBandUK https://www.instagram.com/redshiftbanduk/?hl=en
Pete RingMaster 01/05/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Within seconds, opener The Pendulum Swing has the senses twisted and imagination askew, the guitars of Shaun Murphy and Jarred Sullivan spinning a web of disorientating metal aligned to post punk discordance as bass and drums grumble and impose their psychosis. Vocalist Stephen Thompson supported by the equally rawer tones of Murphy, is a venomous scourge, words and emotions a primal yet composed assault as blurry as precise in their invasively relentless suggestiveness. The determined, unyielding nagging is a constant across sound and album, every aspect and texture a ruthless persistence in its moment within a just as eagerly evolving unpredictable tapestry.
Let’s Get Kraken gets things underway; its title the first hint to the knavish and spirited escapade within song and EP. From within a busily engaged crowd, a swing guided bassline joins the jazzy flirtation of guitar, beats skipping along with them. It is an inviting collusion soon luring hips and feet into the waiting net of enterprise; every initial attribute and lure soon infested with lustful intensity and creative boisterousness as things get funky with the arrival of Donald Sutherland And His Magnificent Mane. Evolving from its predecessor, grooves captivate as hooks ensnare, all the while Wright’s swings landing with real bite and snap as the track gets down to laying a web of intrigue and beguilingly evolving adventure. There is chunkiness to its body which sparks the appetite as much as its gentler wanderings across the senses, all making for a compelling incitement for body and imagination.
The song Lyra starts things off, it’s opening ambience of brewing intrigue sparking the imagination with ears swiftly involved as atmospheric melodies and invitingly agitated rhythms unveil their suggestive prowess. The vocals of Jim Dummer firmly engage and impress just as quickly, his soaring tones backed well by Tom Williams whose guitar enterprise alongside that of Edd Durcan, similarly spins a web of emotive and at times tempestuous persuasion. Outbreaks of heavy and voracious crescendos only add to the drama and lure of the track, raw antagonistic growls emerging from either Dummer or Durcan to drive the ferocity which manages to potently align with and be entangled in the melodic charm colouring the warm landscape of the encounter.
The release opens with Alibi and a Nintendo-esque dance of electronic shimmer. It is soon clutched by a web of dramatic rhythms and melodic flaming which in turn spawns a sonic shuffle around the instantly striking tones of Amaya. Barely a handful of seconds in and the song is a creative jungle, hooks and grooves colluding with the darker shadows of bass and the lively attitude of drum beats. Atmospheric colour comes from wistful keys whilst the guitars spin a weave of grooves which understandably seem to incite Bond like references from a great many. We would not go quite that specific in their description but imagine Faith No More crafting the soundtrack to a sixties espionage themed show and you get some idea of the visual potency on the imagination and the intricate yet seemingly simple tapestry of sound seducing ears.
I am assuming the album took a fair amount of time to get from writing to release, from the disruptions alone. What is the time period to its creation?
Opener Node cups ears in a gentle yet emotive touch of keys, Tommy Rogers’ fingers and voice swiftly stroking ears and imagination even before melodies broaden and their elegance mesmerises. The melancholic air of the song has its own ethereal light and hope, album and band immersing the listener into the realm of album and story with sublime ease, even adding Queen-esque flames of epic tones and sonic grandeur to striking effect. It is a potently enticing start which slips into the theatrical and magnetic embrace of The Coma Machine. Many have compared the album and some of its textures and flavours to bands like Dream Theater yet aside from the unavoidable uniqueness of BTBAM, here and often across the album Australian progressive metallers Voyager nudge thoughts. The track ebbs and flow in energy and rousing intensity as it explores its and the story’s depths, and is just as enthralling as it writhes with majestic imagination, whether in a gentle hug of a croon or roaring with aggression and passion.