Band:	The Contortionist
Album:	Language
Style:	Progressive metalcore
Release date:	September 16, 2014
Guest review by:	WayTooManyCDs

01. The Source
02. Language I: Intuition
03. Language II: Conspire
04. Integration
05. Thrive
06. Primordial Sound
07. Arise
08. Ebb & Flow
09. The Parable

We all know those metal bands that open up their albums with a beautiful instrumental track that you want to hear more of and then act like the song never existed on the rest of the album. But what if there was an album with an amazing opening instrumental and said amazing idea was expanded on throughout the entire rest of the album while also mixing in a bunch of that delicious progressive metal we hunger for? Well, rejoice, fellow traveler; you have reached the point you have been searching for.

Language is like opening a box of cereal and discovering that there is not one, but TWO prizes in it! You not only get well-performed prog metal, you also get excellent ambient synth to go along with it. Songs sound full and like they're always going somewhere, then when you arrive you're rewarded with unexpectedly wonderful sounds before being sent on your next fruitful journey. The Contortionist is to deathcore what Opeth was to second-wave black metal, that beacon of light showing everyone the great possibilities that lay just beyond the horizon. Rather than sticking to the formula, they wander off into the unknown and do whatever the hell makes sense to them. They're the ones blazing the path so they're not worried what everyone else is doing.

The Contortionist sounds like a band that just loves music. They love playing with sounds, they love making sweeping soundscapes, and they especially love a good change of direction before anyone can get too comfortable. They give you just enough to get your fill before dragging you down a different path. It is albums like this that are more similar to classical music in composition than to any modern form of rock or metal, they have such dramatic mood shifts that it is hard to pin down exactly how to describe them. Then again, that is how they should be described, as something you need to hear to be able to understand.

= In Short = There are a lot of clean vocals, occasional death vocals, a lot of prog moments, a few extreme moments, and a lot of electronic manipulations to tie it all together. If that sounds like a fun time to you then Language should already be in your shopping cart. This is the kind of album you can hear a hundred times and still be picking out new moments you never noticed before. I've seen The Contortionist be compared to Cynic, which is a valid comparison, but I would say this is the fruition of what Cynic always hoped to accomplish but could never achieve. This is the next level and it is entirely worth your time.