PREHISTORICISMS

A great number of genre classification arguments in metal seem to stem from the use of the term progressive. Many refuse to let the meaning stray from its classical definition, citing acts like Atheist and Cynic as the true examples. Some feel that artists like Cult of Luna and Mouth of the Architect deserve equal access to the term, as each refuses to adhere to traditional songwriting structures. Still others identify Between the Buried and Me and their impressive but often incongruous musical mentality as the most accurate modern day embodiment of the term. But it's time to expand the ring just a little more, as Intronaut's Century Media debut, Prehistoricisms, delivers a fantastically executed effort overflowing with free-flowing, inventive musicianship, establishing the band as a major contender in the progressive-metal-genre-argument cage match.

Prehistoricisms is the complete album of which Intronaut fans have been dreaming ever since the LA quartet teased listeners with last year's The Challenger EP. All of the elements that have been instrumental in generating the band's consistently growing buzz (the off-kilter rhythms, the effortlessly smooth bass lines, the sharp guitar work, and the masterful drumming) are present as part of Intronaut's trademark sound on Prehistoricisms. But the record showcases a notable songwriting shift away from that of past releases as the band takes a sizable step back from a number of conventional metal ideas. Joe Lester's accomplished bass work carries even more weight on Prehistoricisms, often times leaving the guitarists to intertwine delay-soaked walls of sound rather than traditional metallic riffing. Any Port and Prehistoricisms both display this quality frequently, leaving much of the tracks' melody and driving force to Lester's nimble fretwork.

But don't worry; Intronaut hasn't gone soft. There are no clean vocals or cheap melodies, and there's no lack of heavy moments on Prehistoricisms. The Literal Black Cloud features massive one string guitar grooves. Australopithecus unleashes a few periods of Meshuggah-esque chugging. And Any Port stands out as it slowly decays into nearly two minutes of intense dual drumming.

Intronaut's delivery of a record that retains the same level of heaviness despite shifting away from more traditional metallic elements is downright mesmerizing. As Prehistoricisms moves between (arguably) metal's most impressive bass progressions, intricate guitar lines, and carefully controlled bouts of crushing force, it's not difficult to sense that Intronaut has defined their own slice of the progressive metal genre. Inventive metal acts may be rare these days, but if a few bands like Intronaut can provide well-balanced and creative records like this, there may be hope after all. Prehistoricisms is without a doubt one of the top metal records to be released this year.

This band, I cannot believe them. I literally discovered them, listened to this CD and bought the record within two minutes of listening to them. I was in downtown Toronto with my dad searching for records when I spotted a Metal Hammer (or some lame metal magazine) with a little title that said Intronaut: The next Mastodon?. I personally like Mastodon quite a bit and if theres another band that is going to be similar to them then I must listen. I shuffled over to the metal section and found a pile of CDs sitting there, so I grab one at random. Lo and behold here I am, reviewing this great record. The very first song really had me wondering what was next and intrigued me quite a bit. It reminded of something Dream Theater would do for an atmosphere. It worked quite well, this entire record has a great atmosphere. I can really picture this music set to something of prehistoria. The Literal Black Cloud was really a solid tune, constantly shifting from crushing metal riffs to spacey rock and almost jazzy sections. The next track and the title track haven't fully sunk in yet, I'm still getting a feel for them.

But Any Port. I think I shall switch paragraphs for this song. Any Port, was the deal closer. The song that made me buy the album. This song is so amazingly well played out. The real metal parts don't last for more than a minute and thirty seconds or so. Then you get this groovy fretless bass driven tribal song. And the dual drumming ending! About 2 minutes of just drumming. I also checked out some Youtube footage of the song, and one of the guitarists starts playing along! This song is absolutely mind blowing when you hear it. Best track on the record.

Sundial is easily the heaviest on the record, they really flex their musicianship muscle here. It's a pretty crazy experience. The guitar playing sets weird odd atmospheres and the bass makes you go bonkers. The ending is quite odd, like a weird jazz song or a jazz break from a BTBAM song. It's a good track. Australopithecus is just very brutal for the most part. This is where I think the lame metal magazine corp got the Mastodon link. Good track nevertheless.

The Reptilian Brain is a 16 monster track. I really didn't think it would be that good, but it caught meoff guard completely. The 16 minutes goes by in a flash, the song flows AMAZINGLY. It's completely instrumental and floored me. For the most part, it consists of groovy jazz rhythms, but the metal part in the middle, (or [%*!#] as its aptly named) is very crazy. It's not Necrophagist, but it is pretty heavy and the playing in the song is very good. The drumming is pretty wicked. Then it ends out with another funky groove. A great way to end an album.

Overall I can safely say this was money well spent. In fact I don't even view it that way, I see that I was lucky enough to find this record be able to buy it. It's so good, if you find it, buy it now.

Prehistoricisms blew me away from the first listen and still amazes me... Hands down, the best metal album of 08. There are not many albums I can listen to every day, this is one them.

I first heard Intronaut on the Syd Barret tribute album, Like Black Holes In The Sky. I thought their cover of Arnold Lane was genius! So I decided to dig a little deeper... They captivated me from the first chord to last warm buzzing of the tanpura in The Reptilian Brain.

My favorite track on this album is Sundial... I l love the metal riffage as well as the texturing with dissonant chords, and the jazzy interlude played out on the bass was genius... the drumming in this track is outstanding! But... don't let my obsession with Sundial put you off. The whole album rocks. Every track is played with skill and mastery. I just happen to particularly appreciate Sundial.

I listened to one song from this album I knew that I have found something rather unique and interesting. The music video that accompanied "Australopithecus" still intrigues me to no end and the music completely holds my attention as the strange but amazingly well executed sludgy post metal music fills the very cavities of my ears with crushing sounds of this band, Intronaut.

Now I have not listened to their other stuff but I intend to for I want to know how they were able to evolve into this kind of unique and special band in the grand world of progressive metal. Their music is very organic, almost alive I would say seeing as how each of the song off of this album seemingly represents different creatures from the prehistoric era. As each of these songs play I can just imagine the dinosaurs crawling about the young earth going about their lives. (Especially in the Reptilian Brain) I'm not gonna go do a song by song analysis but here's what I'll say about their sound.

The framework of this amazing piece of metal music is being held by the saucy, omnipresent sound of the pulsing bass. The bass work in this album is exceptionally amazing considering this is a metal album. The bass is what keeps everything together as it produces a captivating, almost hypnotic line of melody on its own as the two guitars interweave around the bass line. The guitars are of course heavy but there's more to it then that. They sound not too dry, not too full. Its like a perfect balance of those two elements along with some very interesting sludge/post metal fusion riffs that are completely addicting to the ears. And let's now forget the drums. Along with the bass, it holds the music down using lots of syncopation and rather interesting drum fills and rhythms. The vocals are all screaming but it fits in with the music so well that I can't even complain. All of those elements come together to form the living, breathing sound of the dinosaur-like heavy metal music of Intronaut.

Of course this music is not for everyone. But it's for people who want to hear something fresh, alive and yet at the same time brutal and crushing like a mammoth.. or dare I say, mastodon? :O The music itself takes a bit to get used to but once you do, man are you gonna enjoy it! I highly recommend it to progressive metal lovers everywhere that are looking for something other then overly pompous guitar solos, keyboards and other instruments.

Now for something completely different (I mean insane), four reviews and all with 5-star rating. So why I don't hear this masterpiece ? Also, this is more like Extreme Metal, than Experimental. Because the question is, where is this experiment ?

Well, maybe it's because I don't like death metal vocals much. So why I acquired this album ? Because I saw so promising reviews here (even not from skilled collabs/ reviewers, but just from members, this should have warn me). But I still should see that it's not going to be my cup of tea. But 4.67 rating, it's too high and I was expecting something good in it, except heavy sound and growling. Because I can tolerate this, if it's interesting. But not when it's boring martyrdom to listen. Is it ?

Cover was nice piece of art. That's for starters. But first track here, The Literar Black Cloud haven't persuaded me. Same with second track. I feel that they're depending to noise, that it will cover their flaws. But it's not that I just hate this style, I've tried "Giant Squid" and I was pleased. Because having all album of terror for ears isn't simply the way how it should be done. It has to be balanced with calm parts. They're here, but they offer nothing to not much.

Only exception is closing epic The Reptilian Brain. It's a nice, calm song ("Sleep") in Indo/Raga rhythm and performance. With changin pace ("Eat" I suppose) and weirdly appropriate ("Shit") and it's maybe strange if I'm telling it, but I actually like fourth part ("Fight"), it simply fits in here. And while ("Fuck") is on, I simply have to smile. I think it would be better to listen this song first, then suffer through first songs and finally enjoy this epic again.

2(+), it has some moments (which are very rare). I understand that Prehistoric times weren't symphony, but it wasn't necessary to make it too harsh. Overall disappointment for me, as it's not offering much. However, this last "epic" (what?) is straightforward and funny (as an idea)

It has taken a while to absorb the dense sound of this band. Intronaut sits vocally close to Neurosis, a band that I deeply admire but find hard to get into as well. As usual, it helped to let the album rest for a while and to give it another spin a few months later.

The music is truly unique, an eclectic blend of stoner doom, post metal, jazz progressions and constantly varying tempos and time signatures. Especially the fretless bass and drums are highly captivating and should please all fans of fusion. The rest needs time: the guitars wade through dense chromatic chords and the vocals won't be your preferred option for a romantic night. They are the only element in the music that could be tagged slightly 'extreme' although they are not aggressive, rather heavy, morose and nihilistic. They might be off-putting to sensitive ears but they are not obtrusive and used sparingly.

The nature of the music is rarely violent though, it's heavy yes, but it's mainly experimental and, if that matters to you, it's truly progressive. Yes you can rest assured; the songs aren't a typical succession of metal riffs. In fact, there are hardly any metal riffs at all, it's a developing stream of themes, repeated in different tonalities, in constant flux and - indeed - progressing. In fact, there is very little here that you could call metal, especially given how organically this music sounds and flows, which isn't really a feature of metal I'd say. Name it heavy fusion if you like.

It would be hard, but also unnecessary to pick out highlights. This is an album to experience in one sitting. If the vocals put you off, you can have a try at the 16 minute instrumental closing track. It starts with a 5-minute kraut exploration, goes into fusion and culminates with a very dissonant take on Tool and modern King Crimson. So it sums up what these guys are up to in one strong piece. Other songs like Prehistoricisms reveal some Bauhaus and Sonic Youth flavours in the guitar playing next to the prominent Voivod influences.

For once I'm not surprised at the raving reception this album got. This is original and highly challenging music that defies any categorization and deserves much more attention. 4.5 stars

7/10

Dinosaur Metal: "Prehistoricisms" is an excellent sophomore for Intronaut.

Intronaut is an American metal band,and this is their sophomore released in 2008,"Prehistoricisms", the follow up to the debut "Void", in 2006. There's isn't much background info of the band besides the debut, so they came pretty much out of nowhere in 2008, and received plenty of acclaim, to the point where many considered "Prehistoricisms" to be the best album of the year. Even though I do find that a bit exaggerated, I really enjoyed it.

When I think of Intronaut's music and this album in particular, I tend to imagine it as dinosaur metal. Seriously though, this music has a lot of Prehistoricisms indeed, enough at least to make me think about such a genre. The music is very rough, the guitars are crunchy, but the rhythm section is the most interesting element; the drums are very tom-focused, almost tribal, the bass extremely virtuous. They have many parts where the two are the main attraction, and the guitar simply accompanies. This is not something new, but how Intronaut does it, there's nobody quite like them. The vocals are always in a metalcore friendly growl, and never are clean, which gives the sound a much more intense feel to it. So Intronaut is an extremely technical band, that happens to love having fossils and primordial beings in their lyrics.

The album is pretty solid, but it has a pretty strong and noticeable progression and climax to it: while the first few songs (actually the best in my opinion) are the shortest and more straight-forward, the songs after, beginning with the title track, get more and more progressive; the songs get longer, the music gets even more technical,with a lot of stop and goes too. The progressiveness reaches its peak with the final track, a song that always amazes me, "The Reptilian Brain", sixteen minutes of epic building, from a sitar-bongo section, it slowly evolves into a fierce piece that takes form only at the end of the track.

"Prehistoricisms" is an excellent album for Intronaut, a band that shows incredible promise, and very possibly will release something greater than this. I recommend it to whoever is into prog metal, but the buildings and stop and goes makes me believe that even the most die-hard prog rock fan will enjoy this.

I first found out about Intronaut after listening to a few of maudlin of the Well's albums. I took a look at Prog Archives Experimental/Post Metal section and saw this rather high-rated album with a very interesting title and cover art. I took an interest in the album and decided to take a few listens. Prehistoricisms opens with a light, melancholy guitar line in odd time with ambience added. Literal Black Cloud opens with down-tuned guitars and fretless bass (barely noticeable at first) playing a diminished riff in odd time. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to listen to Intronaut because of the screaming vocals, but I've learned to adjust. The song goes into a lighter, fretless bass-lead section. One of the guitarists plays arpeggios while the other swells in beautiful harmonies. The main riff is introduced again, but with the second guitarist playing it up 2 whole steps (major 3rds). This is an obvious King Crimson influence (the added major 3rds sound incredibe). The song continues to contrast through beautiful fretless bass-lead sections and heavy metal guitar work. The fretless bass is definitely my favorite part about this album, especially when providing the low end to glissandos. The next song is similar in structure but shorter. Prehistoricisms is very aggressive song featuring many diminished harmonies and fretless bass arpeggios. Any Port begins with fretless bass playing a melody in odd time. This is probably my least favorite song on the album; the guitar effects and harmonies are less than favorable and it's repetitious. Sundial opens with a King Crimson-esque riff (due to those major 3rds added to everything again). This song goes through a variety of sections that actually reminds me Egg because of the complexity. The latter part of the song has the bass playing very diminished riffs in between the guitar's 7th chords. Australopithecus is probably my favorite song. It opens with a very quick and aggressive riff that is very well executed. If Intronaut were to be moved to Tech/Extreme Prog, this song is why. The bassist is all over his guitar neck. A slower, aggressive riff takes place under the vocals. A lighter section is introduced and the song goes back to the more aggressive, vocal-lead section. At 2:34, the song enters an incredibly beautiful chromatic section. The fretless bass plays tasteful harmonies while the guitars play arpeggios or simple delayed lines. Back to the vocal-lead section. The Reptilian Brain opens with a very eastern texture. I believe the instrument is the tabla. Fretless bass plays over the dark ambience. A tabla beat is introduced and the bass plays over it for 5 minutes. Drums are introduced as the tabla begins to fade out. Guitar and bass begin playing a rather simple progression. The song eventually leads to a dark section with an odd guitar effect. This leads to an aggressive, diminished bit. The majority of this song is dissonant with a few hints of consonance. The problem with this song is that it is not very exciting or emotionally upbringing at all. Prehistoricisms is layered with incredible bass lines, guitar harmonies, and odd times. Prog, jazz, and metal of all kinds are prominent throughout the album. Most songs feature a light/ambient consonance section to get away from the aggressive metal riffs. My main complaints are the vocals, double bass (which isn't prominent but I find them unfavorable), and the final song's lack of excitement.

Prehistoricisms marked a definite new era in Intronaut's history and a complete reinvention of their sound!

After one full length album and two EP releases Intronaut have taken a huge leap into the Post Metal territory that they originally only partially revealed to their audiences on The Challenger. This doesn't mean that the band lost their ability to produce some great Sludge and Death Metal moments. On contrary, this release incorporates all sorts of styles and sounds into its 50+ minutes running time and the whole experience might feel quite overwhelming during the first run thought. Just give this first reaction to the music some time to settle down and you'll be more than surprised by how your reaction will evolve.

The album starts off on a very tranquil note and it's not until Cavernous Den Of Shame that we get the first signs of the band that we've heard on their preceding releases. This complete reinvention of the sound might alienate some of the band's previous followers but it's a definite progression into new exciting territory that should make most fans of progressive music feel at home. Just don't be alarmed if you hear a few Jazz guitar chords played simultaneously with the brutal assault of the drums and death growl vocals!

The album ends on a 16+ minute opus divided into five different sections. This composition seems to be regarded as this album's highlight and in some cases the liking of this performance will determine your whole outlook on this release. Personally I don't consider The Reptilian Brain as intense as the other highlights since unlike the other parts of the album this section completely relies on the atmosphere that the foreign sound can produce. I'd pick structured compositions like Any Port and Sundial over it without a second thought but that doesn't mean that I don't welcome them to coexist on the album as a part of a complete performance.

Intronaut's Prehistoricisms show us a well-rounded band at the top of their game. The music has originality and all of the band members display confidence in their work which only makes me even more interested in how the band will evolve on their future releases. A highly recommended experience!

***** star songs: Primordial Soup (1:26) The Literal Black Cloud (5:29) Any Port (7:31) Sundial (7:33)

**** star songs: Cavernous Den Of Shame (4:12) Prehistoricisms (6:29) Australopithecus (4:32) The Reptilian Brain (16:20)

Before I begin my review it must be said that you might not like this album upon first listen, but that's not a bad thing at all, almost all great works are not respected right away.

The album begins with "Primordial soup" an intro to the album in vein of a baroness opener (as heard on the red and blue album) quite slow and ambient with spacey sound effects resonating in the background and a guitar playing a simple riff in the foreground. From track two (literal black cloud) on the album makes a complete shift in style to a much more brutal sound with harsh vocals, chugging guitars and blasting drums, but of course as with many progressive post metal bands they alternate between heavy and soft sections of almost each track.

The drumming on this record is top notch, pretty fast and technical as well as very good use of toms and cymbals rather than blasting bass drum beats. Guitar is good nothing really special except the awkward play style in which the guitar player utilizes. The bass on this album is so amazing (I can't stress that enough), there is plenty of amazing and creative stuff from this outfit as long as you can handle harsh vocals this is highly recommended.

The final track "The Reptilian Brain" spans over 16 minutes with multiple stylistic alternations throughout, it begins with an oriental jam (think "Within You Without You" by the Beatles), at around 6 minutes it changes to a much more post-rock sound and in little time it's full blown metal. It's an amazing song with very smooth transitions and excellent composition if that were the only song on the record it would still be worth buying.

In conclusion, strongly recommended. 4 out of 5

Post free jazz (bass) death metal

PREHISTORICISMS is an album of one song. When I've heard Australopithecus for the first time I was amazed! It was something unique and fresh, something disturbing and captivating. The most conspicuous thing is fantastic jazz bass which is very distinct from other instruments and plays very important role in the composition. It's all the more interesting so because it's post death metal. Usually bass presence in death metal is barely audible.

So bass in Australopithecus is great, fine. Guitars are great. Atmosphere is great, very dark and psychedelic. Melodies are great - original, disharmonious at times, jazzy, disturbing, even moving. 5/5 piece. So it's rather obvious, that I expected a fantastic album.

Unfortunately, the rest of the record is much worse. Jazz potential of the band is undeveloped, there is too much noise, not enough interesting ideas set in a fantastic mood of Australopithecus. After a few listens growl seems unnecessary, it becomes annoying - still, I like growling in most cases. I would even prefer instrumental arrangements of this material. Some, a few good ideas appear in "Any Port" and in the title track, but it's not enough to change my impression. There is also quite exceptional track which conclude the record. Reptilian Brain is a nice song, much softer and atmospheric but it didn't draw my attention as well.

I give it 3 stars. Still, I think this album deserves an attention especially for fantastic bass work and because this band may release a masterpiece someday - I sense a great potential in them. Listening and watching the video clip of Australopithecus is highly recommended!

Whereas most post-metal bands look to the textures of bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai for the post-rock side of their sound, Intronaut on Prehistoricism look more to jazzier and more complex groups such as Tortoise or the more math rock-inclined post-rock groups. This is a true asset, because it allows them to craft near-seamless transitions between these sections and the crushing jazz-influenced technical death metal that forms the other half of the whole. Overall, the album widens the horizons of both the post-metal and technical death metal genres and captures the band in very form indeed, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in progressive or technically complex metal.

After a debut album and two EPs under their belt the members of INTRONAUT were only getting warmed up it seems. Another member change with Dave Timnick taking over guitar duties after the departure of Leon del Muerte seems to have been the necessary ingredient to grant INTRONAUT that magical prestidigitation to whip up and unleash their absolute wildest and most experimental album of their career. PREHISTORICISMS continues their reputation as an intellectual extreme metal band that seamlessly blends together elements of post-rock, psychedelia and crushing sludge metal brutality all laid out in the most satisfying of musical deliveries of the ages. This is the album that even made the critics go gaga and publications such as Decibel, Metal Maniacs, Outburn, Revolver and so on praised INTRONAUT as the next best thing and after hearing this musical masterpiece it isn't too overly difficult to understand why.

The band goes about their usual business as before intermingling placid post-rock segments that once the listener is lured into a state of hypnotic bliss is sonically assaulted with catchy brutal riffs that sustain long enough to establish their dominance only to have the false sense of security shattered by unpredictable time signature changes that wend and wind the compositions through highly progressive head bangin' territory. While all the members are brilliant on their respective instruments, it's worthy of mentioning the above and beyond the call of duty of fretless bass player Joe Lester who infuses the sound with the technical jazz fusion aspects. Equally vital to the new technical achievements is former Jane's Addiction engineer Josh Newell, who blends together the seamless transitions between the soft and silky contemplative parts and the hardcore brutality by smoothing out any potential awkwardness between the contradictory styles on display.

While PREHISTORICISMS is undeniably the sound of INTRONAUT, the band went for broke and evolved every aspect of their sound to the next level. The compositions have been crafted carefully as to retain their signature sludge bombast all wrapped up with creative uses of slide guitar, fretless bass, highly technical drumming and ambient jazz-infused soundscapes. Timnick's riffing style is top notch with its fuzzed fury graciously fusing with Sacha Dunable's aggressively screamed vocals with an emphasis on lyrical intellectualisms and concepts of the most primitive and atavistic aspects of the human experience. As mentioned, what really sets this release apart from its predecessors isn't the excellent musicianship that is present on all of their material but rather the infusion of the jangly post-rock and jazz-infused technicalities. While throughout the majority of the album we are treated to brutal jarring dissonant orotundity, on the final track "The Reptilian Brain (Sleep, Eat, Shit, Fight, Fuck)" we are treated to a five part suite that begins like an Indian raga with sitars and tribal drums and slowly evolves into a 16 minute plus progressive behemoth that develops into a sludge metal monster that satisfies on all musical levels.

Not only is this my favorite INTRONAUT album but this is one of my favorite albums of all time. This is not only a desert isle pick but one that takes many of my disparate musical interests and throws them all together. The success lies not in the fact that these elements are all included but rather in how well crafted their inclusions are and how meticulously placed together in a logical sequence they exist while still finding improvisational space to deliver jarring surprises when least expected. The heavy down-tuned guitars and fretless bass work together in harmony while the percussion takes the listener on an exotic counter-journey. The rhythms, tones, timbres and tempos are all sorted out in a way as to allow the psychedelic and the sludge to not only coexist but to play together and dance the night away. This is highly recommended for anyone who craves mass quantities of intelligent design stamped upon every musical measure and imbued with exemplary musical maestrohood.