British heavy metal five-piece, Synaptik from Norwich, UK recently announced the re-release of their incredibly successful debut album, ‘The Mechanisms of Consequence’ as a heavier remixed album. It contains a lot of variety with a strong melodic sense and some truly heavy moments that derive from groove oriented metal to more progressive elements. It’s a winning combination if you are looking for something that has a ton of dynamics.
“The Incredible Machine” opens things up and while it has bth the prog stuff and the heavy stuff, there’s a familiar almost Iron maiden vibe in the melody that drives a chunk of this song early on. It’s not necessarily something expected from a more progressive metal band but it is something to be picked up on. All the tracks on here have a strong melodic sense to them really but in many different ways, “Conscience” has an almost middle eastern sounding melody to it but it’s the darker tone of the song and the cool second half where it gets more uptempo and chaotic that really shines in this song. “A Man Dies” is almost operatic in a way, it sort of has that King Diamond vibe going on too but it’s the huge switch between the mellower parts and the brutal heavier moments that border on death metal that gives the song a huge contrast.
Quite a few tracks have a killer ending like the above mentioned, “Esc Ctrl” grooves most of the way but ends in killer fashion, as does the final track “Your Cold Dead Trace” which has an almost unrecognisable ending in comparison to the first part of the song. Then there are moments of some nice breakdowns and touches of modern metal magic like in “White Circles” with it’s Lamb Of God type breakdown midway and “Human Inhuman” where it starts off in groove metal mode before turning to more crazier stuff.
There’s plenty on offer here from Synaptik who seem to try to keep things interesting within each song, going into epic journeys and different pathways just to keep you guessing. If you are into prog metal then this might be right up your alley.
TRACKLIST
The Incredible Machine
Human / Inhuman
Conscience
White Circles
Esc Ctrl
A Man Dies
As I Am As I Was
I Am The Ghost (intro)
Your Cold Dead Trace
