Author Topic: The Contortionist thread  (Read 2017 times)

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Offline Mebert78

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The Contortionist thread
« on: July 26, 2017, 09:15:41 AM »
Just thought these guys deserved an official thread.  Their new album "Clairvoyant" comes out in September and the two singles, "Reimgained" and "Absolve," they've released so far are incredible.

"Reimagined": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJu3-qGap_k

"Absolve": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOVyJmNQxmU
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Offline Ben_Jamin

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2017, 09:47:58 AM »
Good stuff. I preordered with the Dye shirt and cap bundle.
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Offline Mebert78

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2017, 08:52:12 AM »
Well, the band is three for three on the songs from their upcoming album.  The new tune, "Return to Earth," is killer and so is the video.  Can't wait for this album!

"Return to Earth": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAfAxmhWmcQ
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Offline LordCost

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2017, 11:22:08 AM »
Well, the band is three for three on the songs from their upcoming album.  The new tune, "Return to Earth," is killer and so is the video.  Can't wait for this album!

"Return to Earth": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAfAxmhWmcQ

Return To Earth is the best one of the three. There are also 7 and 9 minute songs, I'm interested a lot for this album. I don't know if there will be growls or not, I won't read any review before listening the album.

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2017, 03:38:05 PM »
Oooh cool. I really liked their latest album. I had no idea they were releasing a new one!
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline PROGdrummer

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2017, 09:07:52 AM »
Clairvoyant is out.
What do y'all think?

Offline me7

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2017, 11:32:24 AM »
Clairvoyant is out.
What do y'all think?

After two spins, I'm impressed.

Offline TioJorge

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2017, 05:13:36 PM »
Wasn't there a thread already? Hm...maybe not, either way it's been ages. I absolutely love the band and I loved what they did with Language's Rediscovered, I think that was the inspiration for creating an album without any growls and with a whole lot more consistent melody than usual. That said, I'm not nearly as in love with this album as I am with previous iterations. I really, really like it, but there's a couple songs that are kind of meh to me, those being Godspeed (which is borderline a skip for me) and while the intro to the album, Monochrome (Passive) is nice, I really miss those ups and downs and left fielders that the harshness of the more caustic side of the band brought that balanced out those quiet, melodic moments.

I really do like the album a whole heaping ton, but I wouldn't say I love it yet. Right off the bat for the previous albums I could say I was in love with them immediately. There's songs on Clairvoyant that almost make me feel that way but it's borderline. Basically, I'm hoping that this was a one off and/or an exploration for them. I don't mind not having growls but god damn it, I cannot take another massive paradigm shift from a band that was once in my mind perfectly balanced and then went the other direction. Opeth being the glaring and now dead-horse-beaten example.

Great album, but these guys do the beautiful chaos so absolutely perfect that it'd be a real shame to have them do the pure prog and melody shtick just..."really well" instead of the brilliance it was. These guys scratched a VERY specific itch for my musical mind and this album really did not do that, however much I like it and will probably continue to like it even more, it just doesn't do that because it's a totally different beast.

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Offline Sir Walrus Cauliflower

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2017, 09:16:49 PM »
I definitely get that TioJorge. I thought language was brilliant simply because the heaviness accentuates how beautiful it is at times. After I while it gets a little monotonous, but still great.

This album really hit home with me because I had a classmate that I graduate and was my age overdose a week or so ago, and that's exactly what this album is about. Definitely a beautiful album.
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Offline BlackInk

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2017, 10:58:46 PM »
Easily their best album yet.

Offline lonestar

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2017, 11:06:31 PM »
I'll have to give it a spin, forgot it was coming out. I enjoyed Language, and got to see them when they opened for TesseracT, great show for sure.

Offline BlackInk

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2017, 02:23:32 AM »
Also, don't know why you'd wanna skip Godspeed, right now it's one of my favorites.

Offline Sir Walrus Cauliflower

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2017, 07:40:17 AM »
Lol I was wondering that too. Godspeed, title track, and Monochrome (pensive) are my 3 favorites
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Offline Mebert78

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #13 on: September 18, 2017, 08:22:45 AM »
Really enjoying this album so far.  I actually received a handful of new cds in the mail in the past few days, but I continue to listen to The Contortionist's new album.  It's scratching me right where I itch for prog.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2017, 01:45:31 PM by Mebert78 »
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Offline TioJorge

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #14 on: September 18, 2017, 11:42:27 AM »
I'm not sure either to be honest, it's just not catching me in the way the other songs do.

I'm loving the hell out of the run from Center to Relapse, and the latter song itself a whole lot.

By the time I'm done absorbing this thing I'll probably end up loving it just as much as the other albums, quite frankly lol. I just really need some growls in my life at all times. I've got Periphery, but that's really the only active band that is actively making new music that I love that has growls. I need that coarse harshness mixed in with the mellow. NEED IT. *itches and twitches*

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Offline MinistroRaven

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #15 on: September 18, 2017, 06:52:50 PM »
Listening now, thanks for posting it

Offline PROGdrummer

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #16 on: September 18, 2017, 11:28:22 PM »
These are probably the best songs I've heard all year if I'm honest.

The Center and Monochrome (Pensive) are completely perfect songs. I sit and listen to The Center especially and simply can not believe what I'm hearing. They've completely mastered the art of trance-inducing, hypnotic rhythms and melodies. Every listen makes me feel like I've just woken up from a great nap. I've never heard such a perfect mixture of psychedelia, atmosphere and rock in my life and I really didn't think it was possible to capture such a quality song like that on recording in the modern rock scene.

I didn't care for Godspeed at first but now I find myself unable to stop humming it. It really wormed it's way into my ear without me even noticing. Clairvoyant is a brilliantly put together song, Relapse is infectiously catchy. All of these songs are infectiously catchy, on top of being hypnotising. Return To The Earth is amazing.

Last night I put this album on and listened as I lingered around stage 1 of sleep (nowhere near REM, still concious but just deep enough that I was disconnected from my body and my surroundings). As the music played I saw vivid images of myself floating through water, drifting through beds of seaweed as distant lights changed colors like a kaleidoscope through the blurry haze. By the end of Monochrome (Pensive) I felt myself being lifted up above mountains and I ascended into the clouds during that final keyboard solo.

This is probably the closest I'll get to an LSD experience (I'm 100% sober, lol).

I believed that Language was really the "Dark Side of The Moon" of my generation, and was certain that the band would never be able to top it or even come close to it again. But now I think that THIS album will go down as their magnum opus.
I should probably mention that I don't listen to the album in the sequence it was intended. I don't think that this album has very good flow the way it is, but I have a few re-arranged playlists made that really make the listening experience mind-blowing.

Offline TioJorge

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #17 on: September 19, 2017, 11:16:32 AM »
Damn. That's intense.  :lol Got home to find my "Evolve. Elapse. Expand. Adapt." shirt and Clairvoyant shirt bundle pack. Awesome to have, really neat to see their sigs on the poster.

So yeah this album is amazing. Officially love it after driving home at night and playing this through for the...I think fifth time. I actually got home on the last song and just sat in the car with the windows down to finish it out. Really beautiful stuff.

I do really want to hear those gorgeous growls again, and I hope that this is more of an extension of their "musical journey" (as it says on the disc jacket) than a complete and permanent paradigm shift but if they keep it up with stuff like this, I can fill the hole with Periphery. Now if they stop doing growls...I'm in trouble. I simply cannot help but try and imagine the awesomeness of lines like the ones in Language combined with the slightly new sound they seem to have tweaked.

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Offline romdrums

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #18 on: September 19, 2017, 11:47:51 AM »
This didn't grab me on first listen, but I'm starting to come around on it.  Definitely seems to be a grower.  Return to Earth and Monochrome (passive) stood out the most upon my second and third listens.  Not a huge fan of the drum sound compared against Language, but the whole mix is really solid.  Big fan of the keyboard textures throughout the record.
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Offline Mebert78

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #19 on: September 21, 2017, 02:25:39 PM »
I just realized this is the keyboardist's first album with the band.  His name is Eric Guenther.  I gotta say, he really did a masterful job.  As a Kevin Moore fanboy, I've always been a big lover of keyboards in my progressive metal -- and this guy really hit the spot for me personally.
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Offline Mebert78

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #20 on: October 03, 2017, 09:28:25 PM »
Why in the world did they cut this solo from "Godspeed" that appeared in their studio update months ago? It's so damn good. Ugh.  Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gA4TyemGnig
« Last Edit: October 04, 2017, 08:34:44 AM by Mebert78 »
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Offline Working man

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #21 on: March 10, 2024, 07:36:01 PM »
What are these guys up to?

Offline Mebert78

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Re: The Contortionist thread
« Reply #22 on: March 11, 2024, 07:46:24 AM »
The singer responded to am Instagram comment last month and said music was coming soon.  It's been so long though, I wonder what's up.  A change in members, perhaps?  I feel like they lost any momentum they had with their last album, which was awesome.  It's a shame.  Fingers crossed for a killer new album though.
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