Protosequence – A Blunt Description of Something Obscene
Band: Protosequence
Title: A Blunt Description of Something Obscene
Label: Lacerated Enemy Records
Release date: 19 May 2020
Country: Canada
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording
I like playing musical roulette with my weeks picks, I believe I have mentioned that before and even if the results have not always been great I always continue to play that game. But boy if this week wasn’t a reason to try and look more into things I review before I sign up for them, than I don’t know what will.
Just as I didn’t look into what it was about before I signed up for it, I also didn’t look much into it before I gave the EP A Blunt Description of Something Obscene by Protosequence as run through. My initial feeling is that these guys have been in quarantine at home for a lot longer than the pandemic has been going on, and the only ones they have met are each other when they practice playing their instruments. And I’ll explain later why I say that.
Savagery in Fundamental Behaviours is the first out of four in line, and what struck me as technical modern metal, most likely death, was in fact one of the more tacky bands that play incredibly intriguing patterns and difficult segments. Jazzy influence brings forth guitar chords that aren’t usually heard in metal and the execution is beyond perfect, but what I long for are more sections that show the musical oriented side of the track, rather than the ever living “look how good we are at what we do” sections. The least impressive thing here are the vocals which are a blend of throated growls and hardcore punk screaming.
The EP title track, A Blunt Description of Something Obscene was next in line, and much to my own pleasure it started out in a more musical way than the first one. The clean vocals and a beautiful guitar melody convinced me that this one would be hard to top but after only a little bit the whole things turns to the techy side and the vocals start to range from pig squeals to melodeath boyvocals. And don’t think you will be able to hear what they are about.
A picked bass pattern starts out Bleeding the Alienist which surely is joined by an advance guitar riff and drums that play any metal pattern you can imagine, believe me, blazing fast blast beats, caringly placed ghost notes and spasmic double bass that will make any midi click track jealous. It’s there. And I believe that this group thinks that musical skill is important. But I doubt too many will hear this track and think “it’s so catchy! I have to listen to it over and over again!”
The Pale comes up last, filled with melodies that are nice and fancy. However, quite fast and constantly changing so it makes it much harder to grasp and digest what is going on. This group is perfectly capable of playing a bit slower and do it well, but they choose to complicate things which leads me to believe that if the game Meat Boy was music, this would be it. Almost like fast forwarding a CD.
What followed the four tracks were the same four tracks all over again as instrumentals.
These guys know how to play their instruments, no doubt about that. Obviously these guys have decided to stay away from drugs and such and decided instead to meet up and practice playing their instruments. It’s all extremely well performed; however, how the music is written is not as good. Even if I listened to each one twice I still can’t for the life of me remember them, and that is why I said before that these guys may have been in isolated to just the members, and used the time to practice their playing skills first and foremost.
As a musical experience – 5/10
On an “at least our boys aren’t into drugs and violence” scale – 11/10 by Julia Katrin
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5/10 Floating in the sea of mediocrity
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