Vertex - The Purest Light review
Band: | Vertex |
Album: | The Purest Light |
Style: | Mathcore, Math metal |
Release date: | January 17, 2025 |
A review by: | musclassia |
01. All My Hatred
02. War Is Peace
03. The Purest Light
04. Leviathan
05. Two
06. Next Age
07. Social Unborn
08. Following Arrows
09. Scalable
10. Tar
In the Metal Storm Awards each year, we group together djent and mathcore in the ‘math metal’ category; this is partly because it would otherwise be tricky to reach 10 good nominees in some years, but it’s also partly because mathy time signatures are a common feature in many djent bands. Nevertheless, djent and mathcore are usually two relatively disparate styles approaching a common concept from opposing ends; however, occasionally a band comes along that represents both forms of rhythmic madness.
Vertex hail from France, and are finally in a position to release their debut full-length album, a whole six years after they first emerged with the Scalable. Having said that, The Purest Light is arguably as much a compilation as a new record; half of the 10 featured tracks had already appeared on Scalable or as standalone singles released in the intervening years (and this is excluding songs explicitly released as advance singles for this album). That protracted journey may form the basis for some of the stylistic divergence on this album, but in spite of this, Vertex manage to assemble a mostly coherent and exciting record.
The band namedrop usual suspects such as Meshuggah, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Fear Factory as influences, and the former two can be easily recognized at various points on the album. As it turns out, the oldest tracks here from Scalable on the whole exhibit more of the band’s mathcore side; “Social Unborn” and “Scalable” both open and continue forth with frantic, stabbing attacks in the Dillinger mould, albeit also finding for some filthier djent grooves, while “Next Age” is initially groovier and chunkier, before flipping the script with a late-track mathcore rampage.
That’s not to say that it’s only on these EP cuts that Vertex go full manic mode, as other songs (most notably “War Is Peace”) have their moments of mathcore violence. This song is also particularly notable as a vehicle for Pierre Rettien’s dizzying convoluted drumming, which shines throughout, but also specifically on “Leviathan”. This song, the fifth oldest from the album in terms of initial release date, acts as a bit of a bridge between the two extremes of the band, representing the group’s -core elements while also featuring the kind of crushing polyrhythmic chug pattern that could only be derived from Meshuggah. A track more consistently dedicated to low-end syncopated heaviness is “Following Arrows”, not discounting an unexpectedly clean and psychedelic mid-section to this song.
As impressive the band’s technicality and ability to write in these complex styles is, it is those more divergent moments and occasional surprises that ultimately result in the most memorable moments on The Purest Light. Opening track “All My Hatred” is the longest and most wide-ranging on the record, and the sharp-edged, high-pitched opening motif already captures the listener’s attention, but amidst all the different grooves, it is the jazzy drum solo midway through and bouncy Gojira-esque groove that follow that arguably steal the show on the song. Perhaps the absolute standout moment on the record occurs near the end of the title track; after all the syncopated trudging and panic chords, there’s a remarkable left turn into melody on the part of the lead guitar, with a tasty repeating ascending motif suitably accompanied by warm chords that together produce a finale that could have happily lasted for twice as long.
It is a shame that there aren’t more moments in this vein across the album, as it is a fleeting passage of wonder during which the group truly shine. Not all experiments are quite as successful; closing track “Tar” is all-acoustic, and as a denouement to the record, it’s somewhat lacking in direction. As a result, and also because of how distant it is sonically from the rest of the record, I struggle to see what it adds to the album. That being said, it’s just a couple of minutes at the very end of an otherwise impressive album, and while there’s still room to grow by further exploring ideas in the vein of the title track’s ending, The Purest Light is an exciting release that demonstrates many of the virtues of both djent and mathcore in a cohesive manner.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 9 |
Songwriting: | 7 |
Originality: | 7 |
Production: | 8 |
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