No Consequence | website | facebook | twitter | bandcamp |
Released on June 8, 2015 via Basick Records
Technical metal in 2015 suffers from one major problem – Periphery released a couple of masterpieces in their Juggernaut: Alpha and Omega set earlier in the year, changing the game in terms of mastery of form and melody. The bar is now very high, but UK band No Consequence are up for a challenge and have a pretty good stab at the title with their new album Vimara.
Previous albums In the Shadows of the Gods and IO were both great records, which were well received by the tech metal community. Both records focused on technical excellence – a critical man may suggest that this technicality was sometimes at the expense of actual songs. Vimara immediately addresses this, bringing the groove and the melody far more to the forefront than before, driven by structured chorus sections and an excellent vocal performance from Kaan Tasan – ‘Resistance’, for example, delivers a huge soaring chorus section before dropping into a riff with a lovely groove that induces the kind of involuntary head bopping that can be a little embarrassing on the train.
No Consequence have managed something quite fundamental in their evolution – they’ve absorbed melody and softened some of the technical edges of their sound, but they haven’t sacrificed their focus, the heavy feel to their music, or entirely abandoned the clever structures and riffs that they developed from.
The step change is not a massive one; this new sound is still recognisably theirs, but the songs feel more developed, progressive, mature and elegant – the riff-y and anthemic ‘Is This A Way To Live’ and the particularly lovely ‘Half Light’ interlude (complete with sample from philosopher Alan Watts) are especially good examples of this. When a new structure or riff appears in each track it feels like a natural progression in the writing; nothing feels out of place, despite the seemingly disparate nature of some of the sections. ‘Speechless’ transitions smoothly from an Architects-style quiet section / vocal build up (and cheeky bass solo) into a series of technical riffs before slamming into a chorus – ostensibly these shouldn’t fit when viewed in isolation, but together it works, leaving an overall sound pitched somewhere between Periphery, Monuments, Dead Letter Circus and Architects’ more reflective moments.
Production and performances are, as to be expected with this style of music, excellent. It’s taken quite a few listens to really get to grips with this record (much to the dismay of my Editor); partly because although it’s a relatively easy record to enjoy on the surface, there’s quite a lot going on in the background to enjoy – little guitar lines, solos and touches of harmony that pass the listener by on the first, second and even third listens. ‘Disconnect’ is particularly guilty of this – I’m still hearing new ideas in the sections in the last two minutes of the song that work alongside the main guitar lines. The genius of the production is that these peripheral pieces don’t overwhelm the main thrust of the song but add depth to the sound and as a listener there’s a lovely feeling of satisfaction in hearing something new in a song that has been experienced several times.
Overall, Vimana needs to be viewed as a single piece of work. In that respect it represents a very good modern melodic metal album, very listenable and with some lovely melodies that stick with the listener after the echoes of the last track have died down. What is great is that the technicality of the record doesn’t get in the way of the songs; there’s still plenty there for the tech fans and bedroom guitarists to appreciate, but No Consequence have found a level of accessibility that will hopefully carry them forward, out of the tech metal niche and on to wider acceptance and bigger audiences.
So, does this new record steal Periphery’s crown? No. It does nudge it a bit though.
