By Jonny Bakes
Switzerland has always been known as the nation that stays distinctly neutral during times of conflict through not applying any loyalty to others. It stands to reason that this attitude may become apparent in the Swiss attitude to music, and the debut album from Alchemists certainly seems to back up this theory.
How do I start with this? First of all, it’s incredibly difficult to tie Alchemists down to one particular genre as they’ve taken elements from several different ones and just sort of mashed them together into something that vaguely works. It’s a bit proggy, there’s some death metal in there, and there’s a very heavy influence of hardcore/metalcore going on here. As they claim, it’s a bit like “a jam session between members of Periphery, Meshuggah and Northlane.”
Mixing such diverse genres does come with a risk, however, as it may alienate potential fans if they don’t like a particular element. Personally, I can see fans of the heavier prog/djent styles getting turned off by the metalcore style of the vocals as they switch from harsh vocals to the high pitched melodic vocals that’s reminiscent of bands like A Day to Remember. It really is quite an odd mix! If you’re already a fan of this genre though, you might find that Alchemists becomes a gateway to other prog/djent bands if you find that you dig the elements they’ve got here.
Overall, ‘Chapter One Love’ makes for interesting listening. It’s got time signature changes galore, yet also has slow heavy breakdowns. There’s a significant focus on rhythm and the vocals, so if you like noodly guitar solos this isn’t what you’re looking for! There’s some pretty impressive disjointed technical basslines going on too, which was definitely something that caught my attention more than the rest.
There are some interesting surprises hidden in the album though, like the transition from ‘Osvominae’ to ‘Venus on Fyre’. So ‘Osvominae’ is very much of the ilk I was describing, it’s pretty heavy with some impressive chuggy basslines. The harsh vocals definitely take precedence over the clean vocals here and it’s pretty heavy stuff. Then we move onto ‘Venus on Fyre’ which is absolutely not heavy stuff at all! It’s a relatively short instrumental interlude composed almost entirely on synth by the sounds of it, synthesised drum track included. The vibe here screams the 80’s and would fit quite well with other bands of the synthwave movement. What would be interesting is if Alchemists try and blend this sound with the rest of their elements to make a djenty Enter Shikari…
There’s certainly a lot going on with this album, and personally I loved what they’ve produced from an instrumental perspective, but the vocals weren’t quite to my usual taste. But, if you like hardcore or metalcore and you’re looking for something that takes a pretty unique twist on this, then you should check out this album. Likewise, if you like your music technical and full of varied time signatures and you’re partial to metalcore vocals, then this would work for you as well. Certainly, for a debut album, this is a pretty strong effort. Although, with all of the band members having significant experience in other bands, that doesn’t really come as a surprise! For me, the jury is still out on this one, iit may still grow on me yet, but it didn’t completely sell me on the first couple of listens but I’m also not against giving it a few more tries either.
- ‘Chapter One Love’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
www.facebook.com/alchemistsmetal
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.