"The Contortionist" Thread

[Dark Castle]

'Language' is fantastic, but it's the first album I've heard by them. Recommendations for their earlier albums?

Just go back in order. Intrinsic is amazing as well, and Exoplanet is pretty damn good but my least favorite of the 3.

[LordCost]

I saw them last week in Milan with Protest The Hero, The Safety Fire and Destrage. The vocalist is incredible, the best one I've ever seen live, he sounds even better than on the album. Unfortunately I knew only the songs of the new album and they played only Intuition and Conspire from it.

Primordial Sound is one of the best songs I've listened to this year, but the album is less accessible than that song. I think I have to spin it at least two or three times again to remember something more of the other songs

[me7]

I saw them during the tour as well. Too bad they got a short spot (25 minutes?) while Safety Fire got almost a full hour. Safety Fire is supposed to be the bigger band, but Contortionist stole the show with their songwriting.

[BlackInk]

After they were on tour with Periphery I heard some good things about these guys, so I checked out 'Language'. Most of it was good, but I wasn't blown away by it. I might check out some of their earlier work soon, because 'Language' still had enough to make me interested. 'Intuition' is a really cool track.

[Mebert78]

Just got an e-mail yesterday that these guys are playing 20 mins away from me in six days.  I missed them last year with Periphery, so I'm catching this one.  I like the two music videos from their latest album and I like what I've read of them in Prog magazine.  I still need to really sink my teeth into the full album though.  Looking forward to seeing them live.

[Dark Castle]

Going to see them either tomorrow night or Sunday evening. A little more excited to see Fallujah and Revocation though.

[TioJorge]

'Lil necro here to say that the Rediscovered tracks are so fucking gorgeous. Most of the time things like this tend to be nothing more than a retread, but these renditions add a whole lot of nuance to the instrumentals and there's the obvious big vocal change for most of the tracks. I really like Lessard's voice, especially when he's singing...I could honestly take or leave his growls but they get the job done and when in the right moment can be powerful but other than that, a lot of the time (unless I'm just feeling roro-y) I prefer the rediscovered tracks. Really great stuff.

I just got into the band with Language and am hesitant to go back to check out the others but I'm sure I'll get to them eventually, not that there's a lot or anything. I remember hearing Causality a bit a while ago but I was pretty meh on it. Language hit me like a ton of bricks though. I'm really eager to hear more from these guys and when I saw them touring last year they blew me away and I just for some reason never really check 'em out after that (went with a friend who is a big fan), I was kind of whooshed away with other bands that I consider my favorites so they kind of got buried. Definitely will be following them though.

The Parable and Language rediscovered are fucking goose-pimple inducers to the max. Call it my period but watching the video I got a bit choked up on the lines "... and the truth is, I couldn't love you more than I have come to know ... and the truth is, a son is what a mothers for" DEM EMOTIONS DOE!!!

[Ben_Jamin]

They just announced a tour date here...here's the kicker. It's the same day as Coheed....ahhh....I'm so sad.

[Fritzinger]

I would like to give this thread a little bump since I've been listening to The Contortionist quite a bit over the last few days.

I have loved Language for its jazzy/ambient influences and unique atmosphere. The earlier albums were always a little too heavy for me but I am getting into some more harsh music (and vocals) thanks to TesseracT, BTBAM and Meshuggah for about a 1,5 years now.

So the band just released a new beautifully looking vinyl box set. And as some of you may know, I am a sucker for all things limited vinyl and I can't control myself sometimes  And although I only really knew Language, I just decided to order the thing. It arrived on Thursday and let me tell you. This is not a boxset, it's work of art.

I had to drive to Germany from Vienna over the weekend and started listening to the Redux version of Exoplanet, inspired by that beautiful box set and with my newly acquired tolerance towards harsh music/vocals. And what can I say, it is one hell of an album  I have never heard the original version and I don't think I want to because the keys fit perfectly!

And thoughts on this band and their albums?

[goo-goo]

I absolutely love Clairvoyant, a masterpiece. Slowly getting into their older stuff but always end up playing Clairvoyant again lol

[billboy73]

I discovered The Contortionist when Language came out and quickly bought the first 2 records as well.  Language is an amazing record!  I enjoy all their records, but Language is definitely my favorite.  Hope they have some new stuff in the works soon.

I have yet to see them live, but I did see Michael Lessard in his previous band, Last Chance to Reason, when they opened for Intronaut years ago.