Band:	Intronaut
Album:	Fluid Existential Inversions
Style:	Post-metal, Atmospheric sludge metal
Release date:	February 28, 2020
Guest review by:	yoless2

01. Procurement Of The Victuals
02. Cubensis
03. The Cull
04. Contrapasso
05. Speaking Of Orbs
06. Tripolar
07. Check Your Misfortune
08. Pangloss
09. Sour Everythings

Certain music records mark our musical experiences, and it's always quite a thrilling experience since it can stigmatize us forever, open new worlds for us, or simply leave us with a satisfying feeling of discovering a fantastic masterpiece. Having said that, this is my case; I humbly came to talk about this masterpiece called Fluid Existential Inversions, from the progressive metal band Intronaut. Intronaut is a band that combines the heaviness of several metal genres, such as stoner metal, post-metal, and sludge, with the complex polyrhythms of progressive metal and jazz, to transition to smooth psychedelic sections in which the bass guitar plays a key role, leading us to strange, viscous, and liquid worlds full of crazy symmetric patterns. They've been playing around with this interesting formula through their albums, experimenting around and adding different nuances.

Fluid Existential Inversions is an album that talks about personal experiences from the members of the band, as long as philosophical cosmovisions and lifestyles. This is reflected in the styles of the songs: very energetic, dark, and psychedelic. Most tracks open with such explosive riffs full of energy that continues going back and forwards throughout the songs. Jazz chord sections and the quiet bass passages shine after the mind-blowing explosive sections, and this happens in most tracks, such as the outstanding "Cubensis", the dark "Contrapasso", or the mystic "Tripolar". While this formula seems to work in most tracks, the problem with it is that sometimes these clean jazz passages turn to be overwhelmingly repetitive. When the listener gets to "Check your Misfortune", it probably feels like the album is already over, and there isn't much to offer on the remainings, with the exception of the heavy riffs of "Pangloss".

Something that must be talked about too, is the incredible job synthesizers do in some tracks, which helps those long clean passages to be more dynamic and interesting. A case of this is "Contrapasso". The smooth section gets so quiet and serene that makes room for a melodic transition (to be honest, I was wowed and told to myself "ooh what's this?") and soon all the soundscape blooms into polychromatic skies. This not only happens once but twice, and the second time it happens, it gets even better! It's a guaranteed goosebump.

In general, this album is something that offers many things, and you will keep discovering more incredible elements every time you listen to it. Intronaut is a band with a solid and modern formula that will continue to keep moving metal forward to new lands while having fun. That's what music is about, enjoying it. So, what can we learn from Fluid Existential Inversions? Sometimes good records don't even need to have overwhelming complexity to be good. Or maybe they don't even need mind-blowing shredding guitar solos. It can be many things, right?