Picture taken by Chantal Levesque
Since emerging in 2006, Canadian industrial outfit Projekt F has grown in sound and adventure release by release. Their music and themes have openly become darker and more imposing, now reaching a new pinnacle with latest EP, The Butterfly Effect. The seven track provocation is the band at its emotionally rawest and aggressively boldest, a fusion of industrial bred metal and rock which has all the qualities and adventure to push the band to much broader attention.
Formed by vocalist/keyboardist Jonh M. Miller upon inspirations gained from nineties bred industrial rock/metal sounds, Projekt F soon made their mark and became an eagerly followed proposition within the Montreal underground scene. Live the band has earned a potent reputation for their intensive stage presence and has added, over time, playing alongside Combichrist at Canada’s Kinetik Festival and shows with the likes of Motionless In White, Revolting Cocks, Angelspit, Nachtmar, Left Spine Down, Slaves on Dope, For Today, and Ice Nine Kills to their CV. Debut EP, 0000 was a swiftly devoured proposition with its release in 2009, surpassed in praise and success by the band’s first album Skins in 2013 and the Under The Skin EP a year later. Continuing the themes explored in those previous two releases, and looking at the torrid relationship between man and God, The Butterfly Effect is the band’s most accomplished and striking offering yet, and potentially the wake up call to global ears.
The Butterfly Effect opens with its title track, a short but evocative instrumental spawned from the dark incitement of shadows and carrying the portentous lure of anthemic rhythms. Wrapped in atmospheric chills and a haunting synth spawned ambience, the piece swiftly grips ears and imagination, accentuating it’s tempting with a subsequent veining of enticing guitar. It is a potent introduction quickly taken to new heights by Tongue which leaps from the invasive sonic mist of its predecessor. The second track descends on the senses like a tsunami, smothering and disturbing their previous relative calm with a wall of carnivorous riffs and barbarous rhythms guided by raw antipathy. As the song settles though, that intensive assault merges with mellower essences of voice and flirtatious enterprise, all the time though building up to further predacious crescendos. The track devours and excites with every twist and turn of its imagination fuelled tempest, evolving its musical and physical grudge with an invasive seduction for something akin to a volatile mix of Society 1, Korn, and Combichrist.
The dramatic and tenacious craft of drummer Fred Linx is one irresistible and galvanic element which continues to masterfully stir up emotions in Cut Your Wings; his swings and dexterity a call to arms for instincts backed by the maelstrom of predatory riffs and scything grooves cast by guitarist Simon Sayz. The track is another thunderous protagonist which stalks and infests ears and psyche with every essence at its disposal. William Hicks’ bass deceptively prowls the persistently changing trespass upon the senses; at times offering a welcoming hand into the cauldron of sound and energy, in other moments becoming a lead assassin of peace and emotional security. With Miller’s tones equally adventurous in their expression and touch, the track is a caustically virulent blaze.
Unbegun opens up in similar style, scathing vocals and scarring sonic vengefulness pressing ears as rhythms offer a more restrained though no less potent bait. In time creative agitation grabs them, breeding skittish moments as melodic twists break the early sonic voracity which in turn returns with more adventurous intent as the band leans towards a Muse like flame of melodic and harmonic resourcefulness. The overall aggression and ill will of the track is emphasized by next up 03:47:09:08:1945. A fiercely melancholic and seriously haunting acoustic led melodic ‘drone’, it is a provocative echo to the hours before the US dropped their bomb on the city of Nagasaki on the title’s date.
The full intensity and savagery of the moment is uncaged in Fatman, the track an industrial metal fuelled furnace of again raw emotion and debilitating intensity around a simple but forcibly addictive bassline. The track is a blistering incitement cast with the searing hooks and rapacious grooves which Projekt F has honed to impressive and exhilarating effect over their last releases. As vocals and synth spread ambience provide a hostile wind, the excellent intrusion ignites thought and emotion which the closing When the Angel Fell From the Sky embraces further with its sombre fall out and emotive poetry of piano and melancholic keys.
The Butterfly Effect is a fascinating and rousing encounter from a band settling into their creative skin and reaping the rewards. The EP is Projekt F on a new level with hopefully a deserving attention to match to come.
The Butterfly Effect is out now @ http://projektf.bandcamp.com/album/the-butterfly-effect
http://www.projektf.net/ https://www.facebook.com/projektf https://twitter.com/ProjektF_Music
Pete RingMaster 09/03/2016
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
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Signs Point To Yes, the first full track immediately soaks the ear in strong vocals and fiery melodic enterprise from the guitars, their touch acidic around the great vocal delivery of Morrison a strong appealing blaze veined by the rhythmic sinews of Foy who in turn is aided by the throaty prowl of Savage. As the song proceeds and the progressive flames of Morrison and Monks explore the air you feel loud whispers of Mars Volta amidst the impressive venture being craved out. Not the most instant and infectious of the tracks making up the EP but it is nevertheless a strong and inviting start.