The Contortionist have never been the type of band to nudge their sound along slightly. No, they’ve quite often made giant leaps from album to album, as most great progressive metal (and progressive musicians in general) bands tend to do. While they haven’t released any new material in over five years, their four full-lengths to date have jumped from spacey progressive deathcore on Exoplanet, to alt-rock influenced progressive rock on Clairvoyant. In between that came Language in 2014, but before that was a little album called Intrinsic. Sophomore albums may be notoriously fraught with potential pitfalls, but Intrinsic builds on what made Exoplanet a success and expands on it.
Released on July 17th, 2012, The Contortionist had a lot of pressure on them considering how good their debut album was. To this day, Exoplanet is one of the cornerstones of progressive deathcore, so for The Contortionist to tweak their sound at all was taking a big risk. The album is, of course, much more than just the sum of its varied influences. It’s difficult to disguise the fact that the album is heavily influenced by progressive metal bands like Cynic, though. “Holomovement” develops in a way that’s familiar for fans of the band already, but much like most of the album, its melodic nature may throw those same fans for a (feedback) loop.
The final album with keyboardist/vocalist Jonathan Carpenter leading the proceedings, he continued to prove versatile and proficient at both. Intrinsic’s best tracks are pushed toward the front. “Feedback Loop” and “Geocentric Confusion”, in particular, provide some of the album’s most interesting songs structures and guitar riffs. But there’s enough space for these songs to breathe that even the heavier songs never feel too oppressive.
It’s true that some of the transitions between songs are a bit awkward at times, and there aren’t quite as many standout moments as there were on Exoplanet. But Intrinsic is still a solid, sometimes spectacular slab of modern progressive metal. Even if one considers Intrinsic their weakest full-length, the fact is that almost any band or musician would love to have their floor be this high.
