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Too consistant to be Avante-Garde, but still just as varied and experimental.-
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| Intensus: Intensus |
Deathcore, Experimental Hardcore, Hardcore, Mathcore, Progressive Metalcore
Metal Blade Records
July 4th, 2011
- Eskia tu Daemonia (feat. Alex Nagie) - 1:32
- The Intense (feat. Evan Moore) - 1:02
- New York, Yeah Scranton (feat. Jerry Jones) - 2:10
- Colon Cleanse Your Sins (feat. Jesse Korman) - 2:35
- Trampled by Horns (Feat. Chris Alfano) - 3:32
- Festering (feat. Evan Moore) - 1:29
- Outlast Robinsum (feat. Tommy Rogers) - 3:12
- Anomaly Detected: Supernova Remnant N 63A (feat. Travis Weinand & Jason Herrmann) - 6:21
- The Pit of Hands (feat. Chris Alfano) - 2:03
- Man Crusher (feat. Robert Meadows) - 2:19
- Time Killer Shitter (feat. Jesse Korman) - 2:26
- The Church Forever (feat. Jerry Jones) - 1:36
- Anomaly Reached: Supernova Remnant N 63A (feat. Travis Weinand) - 3:24
- I Gave Up (feat. Robert Meadows) - 2:41
- Axis Mundi (feat. Ruston Grosse) - 1:50
- I'm a Wisdom (feat. Tommy Rogers) - 8:53
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| Review Information |
Release length: 47:05
Review posted on July 4th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 7.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
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Intensus (2011)
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Intensus is a new band to hit the world through Metal Blade Records. The Philadelphia-based group is a combination of Grindcore and Death Metal that seems to take on Hardcore and Mathcore ideas, even Deathcore into it's sound. Intensus, the self-titled debut from the band, brings Eli Litwin, drummer of bands Knife the Glitter, Burden, Normal Love and other acts into the studio for a supposedly exciting and unique recording project. Each track has a guest vocalist, and is meant to take this into a more Avante-Garde apparoach. At first, if you don't know who this Eli gentleman is, or the names of the many guest vocalists, you'd probably chock this album up as a waste, but there's actually some big name vocalists tied into this, including Tommy Rogers of Between the Buried and Me, Robert Meadows of A Life Once Lost, Chris Alfano of Postman Syndrome, and the not-so-well known members Jerry Jones of Trophy Scars, Travis Weinand and guitarist Jason Herrmann of Burden, Evan Moore of Gypsy Wig, Ruston grosse who goes without being linked to another band, and Alex Nagle of Satanized on guitar. So, with all this star power, what exactly do the listeners get given everyone involved in this project?
Intensus is an album that is a little hard to explain, but it's not something one would properly categorize as an Avante-Garde album. There's some clear Hardcore and now and then some Grindcore influence to the material. Some songs have more of a Death Metal meets Grindcore kind of sound you would commonly associate with bands like Napalm Death, and at times there are tracks that will feel a little more complex then others in a Mathcore sense. The starting track "Eskia Tu Daemonia" will send you off in the whole Avante-Garde direction a bit due to the more atmospheric Progressive Hardcore/Metalcore approach the instrumental gives off, but then you are immediately dropped into a Whitechapel-esque Deathcore track with "The Intense". The song itself is pretty good, and again branches out more towards Grindcore near the end, which is sad because the general Deathcore premise of the track is pretty strong and leaves you wanting more then the fifty, fifty five seconds it's performed. This leads into a more experimental Grindcore track "New York, Yeah Scranton", the latter of the town names being a town ten minutes away from where I live, gives a strong, furious performance that hammers away both with constant blast beats, but does slow down a bit to a more atmospheric approach with slower chords that set up more of a Progressive vibe you might hear on a Between the Buried and Me effort.
You can't say that these three songs, or even the addition of "Colon Cleanse Your Sins" with some backing guttural vocals against higher pitch rhasps that immediately remind you Bad Acid Trip but more sinister, manage to set up the album. But, if you can begin to wrap your head around it and see some of the common traits that some tracks have with others while they branch out and share traits with others that aren't too connected, then you can kind of get the overall picture. This shouldn't stop you from progressing through though, as there's some really good material on here. "Outlast Robinsum", for instant, is actually a pretty strong Death Metal influenced cut that goes on more like a Deathcore track at times, and while it may never seem to go anywhere at times, it's variety and general toned down sound, as if a feral dog lying in wait to strike iut's prey, then attack when the blast beats occur to ripping the victim limb from limb as the song concludes with a breakdown and rings out. It becomes more a song that is better in a conceptual manner then the actual music, which is something extremely rare to find and have it work so well. This is one of the rare cases of this happening, and with Intensus branching out like this, having this song share traits with songs like "New York, Yeah Scranton", it gives the material a chance to grow and become stronger will still venturing off into other territories like the stronger Progressive Hardcore presence on "Trampled by Horns".
In addition to all of those varying styles, you also get tracks like "Anomaly Detected: Supernova Remnant N 63A", which actually exists twice on this album except one of the two only has one guest vocalist. This track takes on more of a Progressive meets Space Rock kind of performance, but overall comes off with the Hardcore performance of Behold... The Arctopus. The music can be punishing and in your face, commanding your attention, and then the next minute you're left to drift alone in the deepest recessive of space, allowing your fears and expectations of death to build, your madness slowly intensifying as you journey through the cosmos. Of course the second version of this song is about half the time of the first. This song tries to reach the same kind of musical approach as the first, but it really just doesn't work and in the end just feels like it's being drug out. It's one of the very few tracks on here that really come off as a let down. This song and it's more restrained feeling, as well as "The Church Forever", "Colon Clense Your Sins", and "I Gave Up" can be a little tiresome after a while, and it's mostly because the music isn't the most impressive, like with "I Gave Up" having that feeling of frustration mixed with a more Progressive approach, but often just feels drug out with some toned down Mathcore concepts that just seem like they were tacked on moreso then added to give any weight to the track. "Axis Mundi" is about the same as that previous song, and with the last bunch of tracks being alright to not so enjoyable, you'll be looking for the album to end when "I'm a Wisdom" kicks in, a nearly nine minute song that again branches into a more Behold... The Arctopus concept with an Experimental, as well as varying Progressive Hardcore approach to the songs and some guttural vocals thrown in at times. It's a cluttered mess and gets confusing, but in the end saves the closing of the album as it has so much going on that it actually start to become genius in how well it's all executed and flows into one another.
There's so much going on and so many different styles being explored, roughly one, maybe two in each track, plus with the constantly revolving number of vocalists involved from one song to another, it's hard to even begin to comprehend this album until much later. This actually becomes a problem at first since there's no real atmosphere or expectation to be set. Intensus becomes one of those releases you actually need to give time, and if you simply won't, then chances are you'll pass it up and miss out on some pretty good songs, especially if you like any of the styles listed throughout this review. While much of the album seems to have a consistant flow from start to finish, there are some that you'll just sit back and wish would end already, even if they are roughly one minute in length. It's an impressive start, but Intensus needs a little more work on the music overall. If you are into this sort of thing, it's well worth a listen, but even if you're not and want to give a shot, which by all means go right ahead, you just really need to enter it with an open mind and give it some time to grow on you.
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