Alchemist
Tripsis

One of the few consolations that the harsh life offers is that a man can always dream. Among the multiple reasons why the night exudes charm is also this: the dreamlike matter (with eyes tightly closed, mind you) is always unknown to us, both because our active consciousness is not at work, and because of its titanic vastness. All of us have passed, during the daily nightly oblivion, from the classic nightmare where the old history teacher shows her sweaty curves to sweet erotic scenarios, lying on silk pillows, surrounded by luscious odalisques. At this point, imagine an ineffable, violent, and surreal dream in a remote foreign land. Condense it into music, and you get "Tripsis".

Hailing from a scene often snubbed or overlooked like the Australian one (which has produced bands like Destroyer 666 or Rok, cool lads always ready to delight our eardrums), the Alchemist produce an album based on their classic combination of Progressive and avant-garde and once again present us with their unique sound, seasoned with a greater dose of aggressiveness compared to the previous "Austral Alien". A record that remains only tangent to the field of extreme (mainly due to the semi-growl voice of the excellent Adam Agius), without intersecting it, and flows relentlessly between almost epic moments and psychedelia, between futuristic atmospheres and tribal rhythms. Although the keyboards play an essential role in weaving the fantastic land onto which the listener is projected, the backbone of "Tripsis" is the magical and evocative guitars of the duo Agius&Torkington, from which abstract arpeggios and riffs capable of warming a metal heart emerge. 42 minutes to enjoy with closed eyelids and a free mind, as if you were faced with an inexplicable koan, passing from the rough paths of "Tongues & Knives" to the floating celestial ruins of "Grasp The Air".

"Tripsis" confirms that Alchemist are, now as ever, one of the leading names in Avantgarde, active for 23 years but far from having exhausted their ideas and message, expressed through sounds constantly divided between light and darkness, between heat and cold. Certainly not the classic, squalid metalcore disc that the kid who thinks he's listening to extreme music shoots, but rather a complex and mutable work, recommended for those who love "brainy" Metal, or even for a simple visitor eager to taste bizarre and peculiar sounds. At the risk, in this case, of being captivated.