Melting Brain Club claim that their goal with the five tracks on their debut album is to ‘… leker … med sjangere og utfordrer normer. Vi utforsker sjanger-elitistiske tabuer, samtidig som vi omfavner klisjeer.’ And they’d rather categorise themselves as “Progressive Stress”, which is fair enough given their approach is trying ‘..å skildre evigvarende uro med et instrumentalt uttrykk som konstant bygger seg opp og kollapser—en sonisk dynamikk som aldri finner ekte fred.’
So, did they manage to pull it off ? Certainly, there is plenty of episodic songwriting and shifts from light to shade. The pieces – to call them “songs” probably does them a disservice – don’t all exhibit a great dynamic range, but that’s fine because there is plenty of interesting stuff going on. The record is dense at its heaviest, but there is room for delicacy in the sparser textures.
Their second single of the record “The Animal” is probably the truest to their intent, with its unsettling opening motif, which has the same kind of effect as the opening to “Close to the Edge”, or “VROOOM” by King Crimson, or “Darkest Light” by Haken. The song shifts into a beautiful open, rippling atmospheric passage before the darkness returns and the song collapses into a series of bellows which have an almost theatrical quality.
The opener “The Last Dandelion” is similar but perhaps easier on the ear and a more gentle introduction to the record, not that it is light. It is dense, edgy, driven, but it is more accessible. Those two numbers serve as excellent bookends to a record which is as varied as the band seem to have hoped. “Colors” which blends a number of different styles of arrangement and songwriting sits in the middle, a complex polyphonic piece initially which settles down in its later sections with an ironic jaunty refrain. “Come Hybernation” flips things on its head and starts with a more measured tone, gentle, open, and the most accessible demonstration of the quality of the vocals on the record, which are generally good, and while not having a great range, have an excellent tone and authoritative delivery. “Cynic Comfort”, the second track, is perhaps the “odd man out”, sounding more like what you’d expect if The Smiths did “prog”.
Generally, the musicianship is good, but without there being too much emphasis on technical ability for its own sake, though the guitar playing is dazzling at times and nimble. The backline is strong, tight, brutal even.
For readers wanting to locate this album somewhere, the sound world most of all evokes Tool, Riverside, The Smiths. The vocals particularly are reminiscent of Maynard James Keenan, Morrissey, and Mariusz Duda. You may also hear bands like Kingcrow and Between the Buried and Me, Haken too at times, in the mix. It also encompasses some of the heavier progressive metal elements of Enslaved and Leprous.
However, in this one respect the band have certainly succeeded – they have made a sound all their own, however much it may remind us of other members of the broad family of progressive music. This is an excellent record, especially for a debut, full of strong writing and good performance, and which rarely stands still long enough for there to be any chance of the listener losing interest.
4.5/6 | Alex Maines
Release date: 20 September 2024