I like both progressive and post metal music, so as this, the fourth album from the US band Intronaut, is designated as “post-prog”, there was always going to be a good chance I’d like it. A bit of imagination helps the listening experience too, I find.
The start is promising. “Killing Birds with Stones” has a latin-style, exotic rhythm which buries itself in the repetitive and steady chords. There are suggestions of power and sadness, eeriness is in the air and any rhythmic irregularity is cut away by all that’s going on. All these strands make an interesting whole. The singer’s understated and slightly harsh tones make a grey backdrop to the strong prog which has an air of Opeth in its development. Then it slows and there’s a passage of devastating melancholy, infused with a bit of jazz. “Killing Birds with Stones” is eight minutes well spent. Moving on, “The Welding” has the air of an industrial process. The rivet attachment process continues as a dark and dusky mood develops. This is almost experimental as we’re surrounded by a series of sounds which although orientated towards the mellow side, are sinister and irregular in nature. Now and then it bursts into colour, again recalling Opeth. The album works its way into deeper territory. The vocalist sounds distant as if he’s coming from a bad dream. Subtle rhythms ring through this increasingly desultory affair. I sensed for the fist time that the album was losing its way.
A pattern emerged and I realised why I was having a problem with this album after a couple of interesting tracks to begin with. I identified distantly haunting vocals accompanying colourful prog and popping drums. “Milk Leg” has a pattern but it’s like a discreet fight. The deadening vocals don’t match the sound ambiance. The colourful instrumentals are negated by the sleepy vocals. There are odd wistful moments. Mercifully, the instrumentals are left to their own devices and take on an exotic quality. They become magical. The guitar plays a soft rhythm the drum patters and the music is jazz-inspired. “Harmonomicum” then takes on a darker aspect. The drums are not pattering now. This is deeper in tone. The vocals float on like a dreary chant on a grey day. They are starting to spoil the cosmically-inclined prog mood on show here. The bass rhythm is sophisticated. “Eventual”, which follows, was more a case of endurance. This track is unfathomable. I very happily found myself indulging in the irregular instrumental shapes but the vocals are somewhere between incongruous and unpleasant. There’s a break, and then an exhilarating and original guitar pattern develops, aided by the soft patter of the drums. The drum work on this album is expressive and special. Subtle levels of sound emerge, and “Eventual” leads into the dreamy world of “Blood from a Stone”. The vocals may not lend themselves to the full-on prog style but they do lend themselves to this. It’s a short track at 3 minutes but sometimes less can be more. Again this neatly runs into the melancholic “The way Down”. The drum picks up the pace meanwhile, as ringing guitar chords present their sophisticated message. But as the melody picks up, the haunting chorus enters and waters down the intensity before mercifully disappearing and allowing the excitement to return.
“Habitual Levitations” is an intriguing and at times gripping album. For me the vocals spoiled it and de-energised the album, which otherwise was abundant in imaginative patterns. I would have preferred it if it had been an instrumental album and I therefore had unrestricted access to the richness of musical ideas.
(7 / 10 Andrew Doherty)
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