Anomalous
Cognitive Dissonance

More than Martyr, more than Meshuggah, more than Necrophagist, more than Spawn Of Possession (brace yourselves), perhaps more than Cynic (a friend of mine is ready to take a bullet to defend Cynic but I don't have a gun license); I believe you all agree that the bands I mentioned earlier are not among the worst in terms of technique, so I imagine you're gearing up to read a review about an astounding band. I'd like to point out right from the start that the virtuoso giants named in the opening line excel, especially in guitar work: drummers, alleged ones, and pot-bangers (unfortunately not just them) will be very disappointed to learn that there’s no real drummer in this band, but rather an electronic drum kit. Sorry for the overly concise start, but things needed to be clarified right away; now we can proceed in a manner more fitting to the album’s content.

Just three words to convey the idea of this band: Domination Through Impurity. Do you remember those hyped-up characters in Topo Gigio? The walrus and the carpenter (see Alice in Wonderland)? Or if you prefer, D'Alema and Prodi? In short, do you remember those two who played like gods and made a monstrously technical yet monstrously boring album? They're the first you'll think of when you listen to this CD, and after imagining the nice faces of the duo, you'll think "Tché, amateurs!". Harsh words? Perhaps, but apart from the personal dislike I harbor for the two individuals, objectively, the three members of Anomalous are more skilled.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that there are only three of them (two guitars/vocals and one bass), just as in Domination Through Impurity there are only two (drums and guitar/vocals); the second is their insane technique. Formed in 2001 in San Francisco, our guys only released this Cognitive Dissonance in 2006, an EP of six songs for a total duration of over thirty minutes. "But you define an EP as a CD that doesn't exceed twenty-seven minutes!" you might say. "Sure, but they've included the demo version of one of the songs (Revelations to be precise), and since it lasts over five minutes, it doesn't count; they cheated, so there!" I'd say, and so it’s still an EP. What's certain is that when you put it in the player the music lasts thirty-two minutes, so they weren't stingy. From what I've read online, Tim (one of the guitarists), when he was still a runt, was terrible at the guitar until he met Max (the other guitarist) who was already quite skillful. The moral of the story? Max was paying the guitar teacher handsomely, and Tim was learning from what (too) good Max shared, and in the end, became almost as good as him (except he also saved enough money to buy himself a motorcycle). And Max? Well, he doesn't have a bike but can play Sweep blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back (more or less), he loves Jazz and Fusion and started as a blues guitarist, so maybe he doesn't have the makings of a loan shark, but surely that of a guitarist. Then there's Nate, sort of a side character sandwiched between Straight (Tim) and Talented (Max); goodness, if there were more bassists like him, I'd be happy, but it seems the band's masterminds are the other two.

If we talk about influences, the list is quite long (one just needs to parade the names of all the Death bands with Jazz influences); among the must-mention names are the Gorguts from the "Obscura" period or even better "From Wisdom To Hate," Meshuggah, Martyr, (distantly) Cynic, Ulcerate. From the first, they draw primarily on the "assembly line" distortion of the guitars and certain riffs. From the second, they take the odd times and solos just like from Martyr, while from Cynic they take the love for Fusion diversions. From Ulcerate, they take nothing as they are practically contemporaries; they are two bands with very similar sounds, and I’d like to point them out to anyone interested in this Cognitive Dissonance. But if you have in mind a group of neat metalheads, intellectuals with little glasses and ironed shirts, get rid of it: unlike their Jazz-influenced colleagues, our guys don’t just linger on refined sounds and practically in every song, they attach impossible riffs to other Slams. In other words, this is not a CD to just admire and isn’t an exclusively meditative album; in more than one instance the guitars take the worst of Ultra Brutal Death; whistles, massive riffs, almost raw (if they weren’t chased down odd times) that brutally engage the listener just to fling them back on the couch trying to follow the scales played at full throttle. Always teetering between reason and instinct, the tracks are drawn, masterfully composed and so exhaustingly as to require several listens to be best understood. To aggravate the situation, Fusion-flavored intros and interludes come in that, while very pleasing, break the compositions and make them more asymmetrical than ever. If you have any idea what it means to listen to all of "Obscura," you won’t have to strain too much to understand that this album is no less exhausting; this can be seen as either a virtue or a flaw, but should you choose to abstain, consider it simply a filter against those without enough goodwill to undertake such a listen.

I won’t give you many details about the techniques used by the two guitarists because I don’t know enough, and I risk providing a lump-sum account that doesn't convey at all where these two can go. A few words should be spent on the drumming program; simply excellent. Not only are the times difficult from a theoretical perspective, but they're perfectly interwoven revealing great intuition for the rhythmic aspect as well. If you listen closely to the drum tracks, you’ll realize they weren’t laid down using the riffing as a mold but are entirely separate entities often at odds with the guitars themselves. Needless to say, accomplishing such work requires a significant amount of time and effort. Finally, the drum sound is practically indistinguishable from a real one: the miracles of modern technology and a mind superior to that of a gorilla (or Bob Beaujard).

In conclusion, "Cognitive Dissonance" is an album worth ten; varied, highly technical, engaging, intelligent. If I had to find any flaws, I might point to a lack of great innovation (Gorguts did no less extreme things years ago, and the crossover between Brutal Death and Jazz is not new) and somewhat too cryptic expressiveness (to find emotions in a song, one must first understand it, and to understand it takes quite a bit…). For the rest, the album is impeccable; I believe spending money on such a work is at least obligatory, especially considering that by doing so, Max might be able to buy a motorcycle too.