Review Summary: Myotonia deserve a second chance from mathcore enthusiasts.
It's hard to put a finger on what is so distinctive about Myotonia’s 2007 self-titled record. If the minimal feedback is any indication, and if all of the feedback owes itself to the devout Dillinger heads that came before them, then the answer is “nothing”. On the surface, this is fair enough: Myotonia is one more mathcore outfit spawned out of the inimicable Dillinger mold. And yet, over the last decade, I've found myself coming back to this project as much as any other Dillinger release, if not more so. Why?
It's not just that Myotonia are so exceptionally tight and technically proficient. It's that they so easily embraced their mathcore niche so early and executed it with a maturity so rare for a debut record. The tone is crunchy, the screams are harsh and thick hair-singing certainty. The base pulsates, the drums writhe and flourish, and every song wraps up precisely when it should. Jazzy interludes take the foreground just as another crushing breakdown beckons you, bringing with it an ominous, skin-crawling tone.
Myotonia only exist because their predecessors do. But they inhabit their niche so effectively that they never succumb to the criticism they would otherwise deserve. There are even days where I think Myotonia did something that Dillinger failed to do, which was to embrace the most unrelenting aspects of the canon.
This is a record that was lost in shuffle: an understandable yet tragic accident given how vibrant the genre was at the time of the record’s release. Some people listened and wrote it off quickly; there was so much to choose from at the time that one was forced to be selective. When it was discussed at all, it was typically shrugged off as run-of-the-mill. But it wasn't, and isn't. There’s just too much attention to detail here, too many subtle, minor variations on the genre's best themes for one to dismiss this beast of a record.
Give this one another shot. I'm pretty sure you missed the boat.
