Ok so The Epillanic Choragi tells the story of Syr Azure’s fight to save his planet Milachis!! Yeah what the fuck? Google help a brother out! Not a chance, so all I can assume is that the idea behind this is a load of old made up fantasist claptrap. Passing anything further on this, what I can tell you is that No Made Sense are a trio from Reading who have been around for a decade and that they have one hell of a lot of big ideas. “Big” is the key word here and that might be selling this debut album short, “massive” might be better. This weighs in at a whopping 74 minutes and is full of well conceived (musical) ideas and keeps interest levels up throughout the running time without becoming stale or boring at all.
‘The Wake Of Syr’ starts off this ode (which is akin perhaps to the writing of Robert A Heinlein or Robert Silverberg if we are going down a literary path) with a sci-fi alien soundscape of weird noises. From there bass grooves lurch into the title track and an elaborate sound unfolds. When vocals roar in I am reminded of ‘Outer Limits’ era Voivod, perhaps mixed with the musicality of Mastodon. Sound good? Damn right it is. The instrumentation fluidly rocks and goes off on tangents but does so without any silly Dillinger convolutions and is both quite accessible and easy to follow whilst remaining skilfully intricate. Unwinding over 11 minutes this really draws you in and gives you plenty of evolvement as it does.
‘Entases Of Azure’ goes crazy with the dynamics and even more experimental whilst the vocal roars become even more forceful. You can quite happily bang your head here which is a welcome relief as quite often this sort of music is just too damn clever for its own good and forgets the simple pleasures of metal, not the case here I am pleased to say. Another band that are impossible to ignore along with the Voivod influences are Neurosis and this has that full on apocalyptic feel about it, with cataclysmic drum blows segueing into an expansive acoustic passage and then a full on, lead-lined post rock frenzy.
Just as one long tumultuous song ends we are pitched up on ‘Aciculaccolith’ a strange place with piano and alien sounding spoken gurgles. This is crushed with the sledgehammer heavy ‘Elico Moieties’ with a bit of NiN sounding electronics booting it harshly into shape. This lot certainly can play it also reminds a bit here of what Ozric Tentacles would sound like if they were a full on metal band as the song hits a virtual jaw dropping precipice.
I am seriously wondering if record labels held back some albums last year as this one has started at a gallop with some absolutely excellent releases. I know I have said a few CD’s are pretty much essential on this reviews update, as have some of the other writers. You can add ‘The Epillanic Choragi’ to that list as this is a remarkably, special album. If 2009 continues in this fashion we are in for one hell of a year; even if the credit crunch leaves us with no money, there will always be music.
www.myspace.com/nomadesense
www.basickrecords.com
