Album Rating: 5.0

There's also something about feeling some kind of way about the world and a lot of people in it lately and while it's good and necessary to have the angry nasty descostan music for it, there's something similarly cathartic and necessary about having something like this drop now with these lyrical themes and these vibes. Feels good man.



And it just feels rare enough for boys with this level of talent/chops to make something this just...nice sounding? Loaded with hooks and with writing that flows in a way that no part feels like O WE JUST SWITCHED IT UP ON YOU FROM SPOOKY GOTH VIBES TO PSYCHO CLOWN VIBES ISN'T THAT WILD AND PROG, even though it's light on repetition and covers a lot of ground musically. It doesn't need to reinvent anything to be special and stand out from most contemporaries in the genre right now.



Has a lot of what I like about newer The Contortionist with the virtuostic playing dialed back into just very pretty compositions, but also has a lot more umph and forward motion than most of the recent TC material and just a nice little almost phx/swancore spice that gives it those happy bouncy vibes, minus the dogshit lyrics and creeping on young girls shit.

Album Rating: 4.3 | Sound Off

Yeah for sure, we need that nice comfort music every once in a while! I think that fills up that niche neatly.



Contortionist absolutely cannot touch these guys in my view, they're able to move forward and progress while TC sound like they fall asleep behind the wheel nowadays. Flow def is a central prize here, I'm kinda flabbergasted by anyone claiming this is 'wank' whatsoever.

Can't decide yet if this is a 4 or a 4.5 but holy shit in an ice cream sundae "Safehouse" goes hard (been humming that chorus for days on end now). Definitely a strong contender for my SOTY and even the 10 minute songs here are consistently interesting. Will definitely stay in my rotation for a hot minute.

Album Rating: 4.0

A big [2] to everything ShapeOfJizz just said.



And yeah tbh The Contortionist is a dead band in my eyes, a legacy act. This is far more relaxed yet virtuosic and prog and enjoyable than anything modern TC could put out.



I expected this to be another Swancore-adjacent album of guitar-fuckboy cringe lyricism and tired bouncy spidery guitar riffs and cheesy switchups. Instead it's densely enjoyable and consistent and never aims for the moon but fails. It's just nice and safe but not boring in the slightest.

Album Rating: 3.5

“the rest of this mostly felt like modern prog by the numbers. still enjoyed it and think it's really well done though i just don't know how much it'll be in my rotation“

[2]

This was enjoyable but not a lot to bring me back. Wanted more To be honest

Album Rating: 4.5

yea this rules



the contortionist vibes are apt, they’re all cleary influenced by them.

But the jazz chops are fun and done well. Safe, sure but they’re talented and it’s a good time.

Album Rating: 5.0

Right? TC hate aside the influence here is palpable. Benjamin is definitely bigly influenced by Lessard as a vocalist and some moments on the album just fully channel them (the 'Welcome to Earth' shift in Cradle jumps to mind) There's absolutely more to be had here for people that aren't as into the recent Contortionist sound that it makes sense for people to enjoy this and not the other but the revering one and shitting on the other is still a bit wild to me. Lessard also directed the 'Pure' video so there's some connection there.



But hell yeah big agree and glad some people are getting into this, I've been harping on them for ages and it's really hard to find fans, their own fb fanpage is barren as hell and full of spam.

Eh I'm not getting the hype

Album Rating: 4.3 | Sound Off

I'm not really hype honestly even though I AM hype. It's like, a very relaxing hype. Hard to describe lol



But this is also good so who knows

Album Rating: 5.0

Honestly though. Even calling it 'by the numbers' prog seems unfair, while they wear their influences on their sleeve pretty openly I'm hard pressed to think of much of anything that sounds like this right now and it's largely what has me coming back to it and had me coming back to the Retrospect EP so much, there's really nothing combining these elements with as nice of vocals/melodies in a way that is heavy and dense but also hits easy on the ears.



Also always strikes me how much music like this benefits from/almost even requires numerous listens but people will listen a single time and be like ~meh~. A lot of my favorite albums were 'eh' on first listen. But people fuckin hate prog and I'm not here to change anybody's mind.

Album Rating: 2.5

This just The Dear Hunter dumbed down and without theatrics

Album Rating: 2.5

Lame ass djent version lol

Album Rating: 4.3 | Sound Off

That is one of the comparisons of all time

Album Rating: 2.5

It’s a pretty shit take



Way closer to the contortionist really. Replace the vocals and it’s what I’d imagine their new stuff would sound like

Album Rating: 3.5

@Shape - I agree it’s unique in its combination of sounds but that’s as far as I’ll go. Not much else is new or different and some portions of this seemed too meandering and long for the sake of length on first listen.



I definitely enjoyed it, I just am not blown away by anything this brings to the table. The biggest issue of this for me is like some other bands there’s a lot going on but it never seems to quite “get there”. It’s like they’re scratching the surface of greatness but somehow comes up short

Album Rating: 4.3 | Sound Off

It's got a lot more weight behind it than anything post-Exo that the Contortionist have done, the influence is there but there's much more movement and the compositions are far more engaging.



Not sure about meandering personally, they've made their arrangements pretty concise. Predecessor had a tendency to wander off and jam though.

Pure's chorus is great

Album Rating: 2.0

'This just The Dear Hunter dumbed down and without theatrics'



how does this not have theatrics

Album Rating: 5.0

5 year wait was worth it, I was completely sold after just Prelude & Cradle.

Album Rating: 2.0

Damn Wolfe with the 4.5 I am shocked.