After a single listen to "Null", one can only hope that the members of Intronaut can shake the curse of being overlooked that plagued some of them in their earlier outfits - the most notable of which were Uphill Battle and Anubis Rising.
Mammoth grooves are met with cunning song structures that tread deep into jazz and progressive rock territory. Like a best of both worlds, the sound is a mutant hybrid of what one could expect from the likes of Mastodon, Pelican and Ephel Duath being horrifically stitched together by a mad scientist. The songs possess a depth and epic nature that is nothing short of colossal. In turn it's of little surprise that the pacing is often loose and vigorous.
What is surprising is that despite the immense scope of the material, the intricate nature still comes off as massively destructive, even with a vast emotional range being exhibited. Whether pounding out towering chugging savagery or veering off into sanguine sparse guitar strums and delicately beautiful melodic passages, Intronaut never seem to falter - sans the the fact that it's all over too quickly.
Rare is it that what should be such a hack and slash schizophrenic undertaking can contain such elaborately organic transitions from heavy to soft and vice versa. Entirely creative and artistically engaging, the underground has just received a new rising star and if this EP sees them leaving the orbit of their steakhead metalcore competition, then their impending full-length follow-up will find them in an entirely different galaxy.
(4 / 5)
wookubus