Intronaut’s debut album Void in 2006 drew a lot of comparisons to Mastodon and was generally very well received by the metal press. The band came across like Mastodon meets Neurosis meets prog and on the strength of that debut and the following ep, the band has been signed onto Century Media and guaranteed a much higher profile.


Prehistoricisms starts where the last album stopped. Opening song The Literal Black Cloud is very Mastodon like but with a generally more laid back attitude and mixing up the aggression with some The Ocean style grooves. In fact right through the album those are the two bands that I’m reminded of most when I listen to the new Intronaut. However, where the band is different from the aforementioned duo is in the more laid back progressive approach to their song writing with a slightly sludgier sound overall.

Stand out tracks include the superb title song which twists and weaves its way through a variety of moods and is held up by a heavy angular groove, Sundial starts with a groove that sounds like a lighter, groovier Neurosis before hitting us with a stop-start jagged guitar riff and then going into a jazzy jam oriented part. This is top class technical songwriting and the many different parts in each song all come together and sound good because every song is held up and supported by a couple of kickass heavy grooves. Australopithicus is the most aggressive song on the album and again reminds me of The Ocean with its big fat riffs mixed together with parts that are basically the band jamming out while album closer The Reptilian Brain is a massive 16 minute epic (split into 5 parts: Sleep, Eat, Shit, Fight and Fuck) that runs the gamut from eastern classical (complete with Tablas) to a Cynic like second section to a noisy rock explosion before settling down and ending on a quiet note.

Special mention must be made of Joe Lester’s (Mouth of the Architect) bass playing. He’s helped by the production where every note he plays is crystal clear and he has a warm organic tone that really works well in counter point to the cold sounding guitars but it’s his playing that comes across a bit like Sean Malone that’s truly outstanding.

I guess like with most bands that experiment, there are a few bits that don’t really work. Any Port has a drum solo at the end of the song that seems a bit self indulgent but overall there’s very little that’s wrong with this album. The songs rock, the quieter sections work more often than not and manage to enhance the effect of the heavier and sludgier bits. Overall, Prehistoricisms is a terrific album with some memorable songs and is a definite highlight of this year for me.



Label - Century Media
Year of Release - 2008