There are a few things I listen for in a new record. Near the top of the list is whether the band knows how to finish a song. Most don't. Seriously. Have a good listen to the next ten records you play. Do the songs just stop, fade, fizzle out, run into the next song, or do they provide a genuine conclusion? I'm not just talking about the last two beats; do the last few bars take the themes home? Is it predictable, does it provide relief or does it create unresolved tension - tension that carries through to the next song or leaves you feeling uneasy? There's no right or wrong ending, but it needs to actually have one. All too often even the very best in all other departments will get to a point in the song where they go; “OK, this has gone on long enough, let's just stop playing”.
So when I get to the last minute of 'Pilgrim Roads', the opening track of The Inner Traveller by Dutch metal band SiMÓN, I'm treated to all the threads of the song being pulled together before the elements drop off like a discarded Apollo booster rocket leaving a stumbling, staggering, sludgy riff over some white noise, with the white noise eventually taking us out. You are released from the tension but you are primed, waiting for more. This is the shit. This is how you end a fucking song, particularly an opening song.
What else does The Inner Traveller have? Big fat meaty riffs – lots of 'em. I'm not sure of the tuning but it doesn't feel quite as dropped as some other doomy sludge, although this crashes its way along close to the ground much of the time. What gives the record such life though are those contrasting moments like the middle of the title track, where the pace quickens and those riffs launch themselves into the atmosphere and take on that proggy Dream Theater feel before dropping lightly like volcanic ash after the eruption. And yep, there's glock in there, before once again they finish perfectly by starting to fade out but punctuating it with gentle resolution instead.
Then there's the softer straight singing juxtaposed with the screamed, harsher-but-not-quite-hardcore vocals, not always in synch with the emotion from the instruments. Progressive/post-metal really has developed the perfect relationship between instrument and voice. Neither is more important despite the fact vocals do command attention when present. SiMÓN use dynamics and a wide net of emotion, colour, texture and depth to create an album that could so easily have been a big doomy, sludgy riff-fest rather than the wondrous musical journey that it is.
In the end though, when I hear a record like this that works so well as a whole, that plunges the dirty, dark depths and ascends to uplifting highs, that reaches in and grabs my emotions and paints such a beautiful portrait, there's really just one simple thing I can say. Thanks guys.
