THE CONTORTIONIST | Clairvoyant | Album Review

For this throwback album review, we're only going back three years in time to take a look at "Clairvoyant", the fourth and the most recent album from the progressive metal band The Contortionist as of this review being posted. One descriptor that fits this band as well as many others in the genre that they're in is that they refuse to pigeonhole themselves into one category. As a band, they've been going since 2007 with various sound changes over the years. Initially starting out as a deathcore band, The Contortionist started to nudge their way towards experimental heavy music with their first two albums before fully embracing it with 2014's "Language". This also saw the departure of original vocalist Jonathan Carpenter, with Michael Lessard from Last Chance To Reason filling in for him as the band's new permanent vocalist. That change made all the difference, and while "Exoplanet" and "Intrinsic" are good albums, it was really with "Language" that this band really started to find their niche and delivered some excellent avant-garde styled prog-metal that was among the best of the 2010's. It's proof that going more melodic and less aggressive isn't always a death sentence, and it worked very well for the six-piece band from Indianapolis. 2017's "Clairvoyant" continues the melodic nature of "Language" with primarily clean singing from Lessard and lighter music overall. It's also a continuation of the themes on that album, referencing one of Lessard's best friends who lost his battle with drug addiction only shortly after his mother had passed away. So, with the lighter sound comes darker atmospheres, but the question is what makes "Clairvoyant" such a stellar album? Let's take a look at the nine-track album in full and find out why it works so well, perhaps even better than "Language".

The instrumental "Monochrome (Passive)" kicks the album off in a crushing but melodic way. Opening up an album with an instrumental track is a very hard thing to do effectively. Bands either fail at this or provide a nice little intro that sets up everything that follows it. With this track, The Contortionist easily succeed here. After 51 seconds of light ambience, the huge sounding guitars come in and it absolutely captures your attention. The track eventually leads into gorgeous instrumentation, and every element is enfused perfectly throughout the entire 5 minute runtime. It sets up the music that's beyond it while also going by at a fast rate. We then arrive at the first track with vocals on the album, "Godspeed". This is one of the more upbeat sounding offerings on the album, and it does a fantastic job at what it does. The drumming on this track and throughout this album for that matter is phenomenal. Michael Lessard's vocal delivery is captivating. The shifts in rhythm are flawless and don't sound off-putting or jarring. It's easily a high point for the album and it's a song worth hearing repeatedly. The next track "Reimagined" was also the leadoff single from the album and it's different from anything the band had ever done at that point and in a good way. It's the band trying to write something with a verse-chorus structure, and they still nail it. The bass at the beginning really seals the deal for this track being excellent and the chorus has a great cadence to it that makes you listen, aside from the fact that it's well written and beautiful.

I could devote an entire paragraph to the title track, "Clairvoyant", because in my opinion, this is the best song on the album and probably the best song from this band. This song is seven and a half minutes and features a clear duality between the harder side of the band and the softer side, although the harder side isn't necessarily growls nonstop and aggressive djent riffs. Instead, the track delivers one of the best drum performances I've ever heard from Joey Baca, as well as beautiful transitions and chord changes that are incredibly layered and smooth. It is atmospheric, it is crushing, and every member is in top form on this song. When I talk about great title tracks and how intrinsic they are to an album, no pun intended, songs like this are what I'm referring to, and this track is probably one of the best title tracks of all time. The subsequent songs on the album, "The Center", "Absolve", and "Relapse", aren't nearly that high on the tier scale, but all of them are at the summit. I don't know if "The Center" is one of my personal favorites on this album, but you still get some excellent melodic guitarwork and singing, so that's a plus. "Absolve" is sonically similar to "Godspeed", but there's still so much to dive into with this song. The drumwork, the melody, the lyric writing, it's all top notch. "Relapse" continues that trend with the excellent line "If the relapse had been today then let tommorow be the recovery". All of this proves how exceptionally talented the band is, and every track so far is worth hearing.

"Return To Earth" and "Monochrome (Pensive)" both directly reference Lessard's friend and his downfall, and these two cuts are the most harrowing on the album I suppose. "Return To Earth" has great musicianship even though it's not one of the standouts in my honest opinion. The closing track, "Monochrome (Pensive)", which is a sister song to the opening track, is over nine minutes and doesn't let a single minute go to waste. This track is downright beautiful, with Lessard giving an excellent performance and the music delivering on every possible level. It's the perfect end to an album, and it makes you realize that this album is complete. None of these tracks feel like they don't deliver. Every track contributes to this album in some way. There isn't a single moment on this album that's not worth hearing at least once. As soon as you've heard these tracks, you'll want to revisit them as much as possible. And when that happens, you know you have an amazing album. It's an album I should have been on board with a lot sooner, but sometimes later is a lot better than never. Overall, "Clairvoyant" is a grandios and meticulously crafted masterpiece that continues the band's experimental vision with spectacular results. It's a different album from its predecessors, but in this case, the band progressively honed their sound throughout their tenure to reach this high point in their career. If you're a fan of progressive metal, especially in recent times, then this is an album that shall not be missed whatsoever.

RATING: 10/10

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