Intronaut is an American progressive metal band from Los Angeles, California, that incorporates complex polyrhythms, progressive rock, and jazz. It's been a five-year since 2015's The Direction Of Last Things which was my first contact with the band. I was really impressed with the album which reached my top tier on that year list. Their sound is influenced by a wide variety of genres (stoner metal, post-metal, and sludge metal). In addition to callbacks to 70's prog rock, Intronaut remind me of bands such as Mastodon (early), Tool (ambient soundscapes / ethereal breaks) and BTBAM (late).
Now it's 2020 and the quartet is finally back with the sixth LP, Fluid Existential Inversions. The only line-up change is the addition of drummer Alex Rudinger (The Faceless, Whitechapel). His addition behind the kit definitely played a key part in the album's sound. While Intronaut have always used polymeters and polyrhythms, Alex's performance is insane. A song like "Cubensis" is practically a 7-min drum solo, listen to the playthrough here. From the get-go this song, which is my favorite on the album, displays a recurrent feature throughout the album: Transitions from heavy distorted portions into ambient jazz-infused soundscapes. I love that the clean vocals in the slow section which remind me of BTBAM's "Mordecai". In fact, vocals often alternate from screams and growls to clean singing. But even the harsh vocals are rarely super aggressive as you would hear in BTBAM for example. All in all, I enjoyed all tracks on this album, each one brings a unique flavor while keeping a consistent album feeling. "The Cull" for example sounds instrumentally influenced by Tool and vocals by Baroness and it works surprisingly well. The fact that often the guitar tone is not super distorted and Sacha Dunable/David Timnick play many arpeggios gives room for a prominent bass guitar (e.g. "Contrapasso") by Joe Lester. Joe's bass often serves as the primary melodic component of certain riffs (e.g. "Speaking of Orbs"). Actually this song is a Pink Floyd homage until a super heavy riffs kick in. This contrast is what makes this album great. For about 3 min"Tripolar" may be the heaviest song on the album (almost Meshuggah like) before entering an ethereal break from their more intense riffs. As we approach the end, the single "Pangloss" is the grooviest track on the record, but also here it ended up diving into a post-rock section.
The only thing that bugs me a bit in Fluid Existential Inversions is the almost mandatory ethereal break in every song. It works well almost always but by the time we get to the last song it feels a bit forced. that's maybe why the last song "Sour Everythings" appeals less to me than the rest. But this is just me being picky. Overall it is a very good album and a worthy follow-up to The Direction Of Last Things.
Intronaut can be too much to digest - but after a few listens, you hear the beauty in it, so it may take time to get to a final verdict. I suspect that many publications may be rushing to review it and are missing the point. It's really a shame because Fluid Existential Inversions is one of the best albums of the year so far.
SCORE: 83/100
Genre: Progressive Metal
Released by Metal Blade Records on February 28th, 2020
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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad
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