COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Genetics or as I like to call them Dianetics; their original and truer to the cause name, are an Australian instrumental progressive metal band hailing from Sydney, Australia. The band is primarily led by Samuel Joseph and Shane Leadbeater for the recording of this album, however the band has filled in its lineup for the purposes of live play and moving forward.

From the outlay, I am probably the least into instrumental metal music fan that there could be given the fact that I'm a musician myself. Usually there is not enough to take the role of the vocalist and it often sounds like a song written to have vocals with those tracks muted - this is not the case for Genetics. The potential risks of the typical djent riff here, Milton cleans there, post rock banality in the middle simply does not apply and thankfully so. I feel like that is the musical equivalent of overloading on sugar, while this is sometimes a good thing - too much leads to diabetes (read: diabeetus).

The premise of the album is described aptly and concisely by the album title, 'Cognitive Dissonance' outlines the concept of not being able to holding multiple views that are at competition or contradiction to your currently held views despite how true they possibly could be. This is applied and rather magically applied to the concept of religion through the use of sound bites and excerpts of famous/infamous religious and public figures sharing their spiritual gems of great pertinence. The approach is not heavy handed, rather subtle and balanced which allows you to make your own conclusion theologically, perhaps influenced by one's own cognitive dissonance - layers of meta abound.

One thing that I didn't think would happen is such a discovery period of all these sound excerpts following my probably 50 listens of this album. I have searched for each of these clips and researched who made these sometimes wild, often eloquent claims and I feel like it has developed me as a person despite not being a poster boy for piety in any way, shape or form. There is something magical and cathartic about this record in that way.

I don't want to minimise the musical significance of the record with all this philosophical foreshadowing, as the performances and approach of this record is close to impeccable for a debut with delightfully delicate clean tones that lull you into the verge between focus and rest, to tastefully crafted melodic explorations including from guests John Luna and Mitch Coull.

This is a truly progressive metal album, not a proper noun "Prog Metal" album which has spiraled into a self parody of regression for the most part - the dynamics and harmonic structures of 'Purposely Blind' and 'Body Thetans' are enough to reaffirm and ignite an interest in instrumental rock for me.

Whilst songs like 'Proliferate' may on first listen appear slightly more generic in nature, they offer an element of light and shade to the album which shake you up out of any more relaxed/pedestrian sections with jarring and energising guitar leads and groovy rhythms.

My favourite track 'Man Made Utopia' is reminiscent of 'The Perfect Element' era Pain of Salvation with a modernised touch and perhaps some of the most powerful arrangement lifts that I've heard in the last year. This is an impassioned piece brought to an apex by the personally most affecting spoken word sections from Stephen Fry. The reprise of melodic themes throughout the song despite the varying textures is particularly enjoyable.

The lead guitar work is actually very refreshing from the often guitar solo free or Periphery clone tap leads I always hear nowadays. With a few improvements to the finnesse especially on the vibratos, these will be 2 guitarists coming to rock the boat and shake things up and I for one am glad to be along for the journey.

The production is of a great quality especially for a self produced debut and I feel that this element will develop with time to have the second release from this group of Sydney composers being rather astonishing. There is a slight overuse of high end and a few problem spots in the guitars but this is only minor and does not detract from the varied presentation of blended genre work.

One of my top picks for the year so far - a splendid blend of jazzy elements, alternative rock textures, post rock and metal textures.

Standout tracks: Man Made Utopia, Purposely Blind, Cognitive Dissonance

8.75/10