By Jase Walker
One particular subculture which is starting to become much more apparent in the mainstream metal scene is LGBT+. Despite being very much a part of metal since it’s inception, with the likes of Judas Priest amongst the most well-known exemplars, the topics, associated struggles and overall representation generally haven’t really gained much traction until recently, but the accessibility to music tools to the wider population has made getting music out there a much easier endeavour and Planepacked’s releases are a good example of this.
‘Transactinides’ centres around the recreation of oneself following the coming out and subsequent gender transition and explores further developments within the music that helps carry the message also.
The album on the whole is a fusion of many different genres that ranges from extreme metal with blast beats, dirty guitar riffs and large swathes of different electronic samples, synths and strings, as well as a mix between clean vocals and growls.
Musically, the album is solid and appeals to my current interests of banging riffs and synthwave, with acts like Dance With The Dead doing a fantastic job of merging both of those, ‘Transactinides’ does this well in a similar vein. I can’t say I’m particularly keen on the clean vocals as they don’t gel well with some of the melodies that are going on at the same time, ‘Dark Pact’ is an example of this not quite working despite how well the unclean growls are used.
The title track, ‘Transactinides’, however, stands out as fantastic track that evokes a lot of Dream Theatre style pounding double bass pedal thrashing mixed with frantic and grand synths that they’re well known for, and is legitimately a fantastic headbanging track. ‘The Demon Core’ is another solid track with its use of uncleans over music that you would find in a retro-JRPG boss fight and I am absolutely here for that sort of stuff.
One thing that stands out across the whole album is how well the guitar and synths mesh together, quite often they’re used in exceptionally busy passages but it doesn’t ever really feel like they’ve drowned each other out, instead it’s a swelling, frantic, jump around and revel in the retro sort of vibe.
‘Dual Shock Agent’ wouldn’t be out of place on a Mega Man X soundtrack, because Capcom’s game music from that era was great and hearing these sorts of influences shine through, whether intentional or not, is a joy to listen to. ‘Heliotaxis’ again is another example of a song that’s musically fantastic, it’s a nine and a half minute long prog epic but I feel that the vocals miss the mark a bit when it comes to gelling with the melodies that support it.
But finishing off with ‘Ascendancy’ and its Capcom video game music vibe matched up against the metal undertones is a great finisher. I adore this sort of style and knowing someone who is able to effortlessly reproduce it and is a core tenet of their sound, love it.
On the whole the album is solidly produced; the songs are crafted from a place of love for the music they’ve grown up with and put it all into their work and I hope it continues. I do feel like the clean singing needs a bit of focus to work better with the overall melodies from the backing band, but on the whole, I quite enjoyed it!
- ‘Transactinides’ is released on 8 April. You can get your copy HERE.
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