ALBUM REVIEW: "Clairvoyant" by The Contortionist

The Contortionist are no longer the band they were when they started. From kids from Indianapolis writing "djent" (I hate that word) music from Indianapolis, they have grown and changed into something that has been distilled into Clairvoyant, and is nothing short of spectacular. Like, holy shit. 2014's Language saw them transition into something really worth taking notice of, and is a challenging piece of work regardless of what you think of that side of "heavy" music (although I would in no way categorise Language as simply a heavy record, it is so much more than that.), and with Clairvoyant the band have almost entirely shed their metal roots in favour of the prog rock sound they had shades of on Language. It really sounds like a band coming into their own; before this change they sounded like most of the other "djent" bands chugging away at their 7 string guitars with some twiddly stuff thrown in, now they are a group of musicians composing incredibly immersive, challenging pieces of music and performing them with full command of their instruments, allowing each element to have it's time to shine and for space to exist in between the big ideas. Where Language was a bit "look at me I'm a music major" at times, Clairvoyant has none of that beard twisting, or if it does you are too deeply immersed in the music that you really don't care. This really is an album best experienced as a whole; I intentionally left the singles alone, and I'm glad I did because the 50-odd minutes of the album was like an episode of Game of Thrones. I was keenly awaiting what was coming next, while being in shock most of the time at just how cinematic and enveloping the sound I was hearing was. When an album like this comes along I am always wary of dissecting it too much for fear of ruining the magic, so I'll leave it at that - don't just take my word for it, go and listen to Clairvoyant now.

Favourite Songs: Reimagined, Clairvoyant, Absolve and Monochrome (Pensive)

Least Favourite Song: sure.

Rating: A+

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1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

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