[Review] Alarum - ‘Recontinue’ LP
Why do I keep agreeing to interview death metal albums, when I’m clearly no good at it? I’ve got friends who are constantly listening to extreme metal, who’ve managed to stay as invested in the metal world as I was in high school (when I had an, I felt, almost encyclopedic knowledge of all the bands listed on extreme metal Wikipedia pages – “list of technical death metal bands,” etc.), and who remain enamoured by the art of *the* riff as the chief element of good songwriting; but, like, none of that really applies to me anymore? These days, I’ll listen to metal where you can barely hear the notes being played over cymbal wash and distortion that’s basically white noise, with riffs you almost have to dial in to with your ears before realising that what you think you’re hearing might just be your brain finding patterns in snow.
On a completely unrelated note, I miss Greytomb.
Anyway, not important. I just though I’d preface my review by saying, as I plan to self-consciously do in every review from here on out, that I’m an uncultured swine, and you shouldn’t reeeeally listen to my opinion on anything, especially extreme metal. Case in point – I only recently started listening to Alarum, a storied Melbourne band who’ve apparently been playing prog-death in the style of Atheist and Cynic since 1992, as their Wikipedia pages tells me. I don’t usually get to consult Wikipedia when writing about local bands, and… uhhh, does Alarum count as a local band? Local enough, I guess, but 30+ years is a hell of a long time. As far as death metal goes, having demos that have been floating around since the 90s grants you veteran status, and these guys have two of those.
Recontinue is their fifth album. Being the newcomer to the Alarum oeuvre that I am, I can’t comment on how it places in their discog, but as it’s own thing, it’s strange and it’s good. It’s an album that manages to feel stylistically consistent despite how off-kilter it gets throughout its eleven tracks; think groovy death metal with odd bits, mostly integrated into recognisable songs, and you get the idea. The weird bits span jazz fusion, bossa nova, dub/reggae, and flamenco-inspired sections, and the band has all of the chops to pull these styles off convincingly.
Opening track ‘Introspective’ establishes this off-kilter immediately and really runs the genre gamut in its two minutes and three seconds, fading in with outlaw country-esque acoustic strumming and twangy guitar leads, only to break into scream-y prog metal guitar leads and big discordant Pink Floyd synth. Then comes the amen break (or close enough to it), which, of course, no album is truly complete without.
‘Imperative,’ the second track, immediately takes things into heavier ground with a killer drum intro leading into a mid-pace thrash riff and almost melodeath-y verses, complete with harsh vocals, and getting into the first weird bit around the minute mark, a really tasty, jazz-fusiony drum + bass break that leads seamlessly into the next riff. ‘Introspective’ is an interlude. I’m tempted to say that the album has a few of those, but they’re not interludes per se, just shorter, lighter tracks (“Metanoia,” “Footprints,” and “Introspective” ) sandwiched in between longer and heavier ones, showcasing some novel idea or melody. “Introspective,” of course, kicks the album off, then ‘Metanoia,’ a few tracks further in, is a short instrumental that sounds like Rush married Cynic, and ‘Footprints’ rounds off these tracks with its solos, clean vocals and almost Dream Theater-like verses. The reggae-syncopated verses of ‘Zero Nine Thirt'y’ remind me a lot of Twelve Foot Ninja, too.
The album sort of ping-pongs between ‘Imperative’-s and ‘Introspective’-s, and there are other tracks that blur the line between the two (“The Visitor,” “Zero Nine Thirty.”) “Into Existence,” for instance, is a cool little outlier that maths it up Dillinger-style, serving metronomic whiplash with a killer drumline to match. Overall, it’s a tracklist that’s as much fun to listen to on shuffle as in its intended order.
If I’m honest, I was never particularly primed to like this album. Which I do, to be clear – but if it hadn’t been on a review llsten I don’t even know that I would have listened to it. Doubling back to Alarum’s Wikipedia page: I’m a big fan of Atheist, whose cohesive take on jazz-fusion inflected death metal still manages to surprise me, and Unquestionable Presence is easily a top 10 death metal album; but, I never really gelled with Cynic. For whatever reason, the riffs never hit me the right way, and their weirdness was always a step too far, never quite enhancing the sense of chaos that I enjoy most about death metal, nor confusing or ear-catching enough to massage my brain like my favourite prog bands will. Re-listening to Focus, I’m hearing the influence on Recontinue a lot. Alarum takes a bit from Atheist, but a *lot* from Cynic: the thin guitars, prominent bass, clean vocals (though no vocoder, thank god), somewhat sterile production – and that’s not as appealing to me as it might be if it was reversed.
But Alarum isn’t Cynic, and what they add to the sound changes the landscape a bit for me. There’s less of an emphasis on meandering atmospherics here, and more to the Alarum’s credit, Recontinue just riffs harder. Highlights include the banger chorus of “Unresolve,” the shifting breakdown of “Imperative,” and basically all of “Into Existing.” Mark Palfreyman’s bass-playing is a consistent highlight on the album. Not just him, either, these dudes can play. I couldn’t find a lineup on the bandcamp page, but ignoring the advice of all my high school teachers, I’m going rely on everyone’s favourite wiki to tentatively credit Jared Roberts (drums), Scott Young (guitar) and John Sanders (guitar) for their stellar contributions here. The vocals, also done by Mark, are surprisingly varied throughout the record; there’s kind of an Ihsahn-like gurgle to his mid-range harsh vox with a kind of Max Cavalera-y yell, and it sounds good… also he sounds a bit like Paul Masvidal, but I guess that’s just a given at this point.
Overall, the musicianship on display here is excellent, and despite how insane some of the shredding gets on this album, I still get the sense that the band is hiding their musical power level a little bit, especially during the groovier parts. I’d love to hear what it sounds like when these guys just, like, rock out, without necessarily trying to do anything clever or stick too closely to the grid – but that’s probably my psych and post-rock bias leaking. Which, now that I think about, probably makes my Cynic-indifference even more confusing.
Whatever. In conclusion, album good, jazzy death metal weird, fun riff, shred and drum go bang. Go buy it on Bandcamp, there’s sexy green vinyl.
