Contrive may have played with some big name acts in their native Australia, but their influence beyond that has been negligible. They’ve certainly picked up a few fans along the way though, and one such notable fan has been the mighty Devin Townsend. The Dev has undertaken mixing duties on their latest release ‘The Internal Dialogue’, so will the attachment and endorsement of such a name help spread their word a little further?
They are certainly a hard band to pigeonhole into any particular style, as there seems to be a fair bit of everything going on here. Take a large dose of metalcore, add a big chunk of groove, leave to set for a while then garnish with intricacy, subtlety and invention, and you’ve pretty much got it right there. It makes for an intriguing mix and a compelling listen. You could easily be forgiven for dismissing this out of hand after sampling opening track ‘Is This the Way?’, which for its sins could be described as straight up metalcore, albeit with some interesting ideas thrown in. Paul Haug’s vocal performance is more out of the Tom Araya school of one tone shouting, and overall, it’s not especially promising, but hold on, because when we get to the second half of the song, things get a lot more interesting, and the effect of Mr Townsend is not only clearly evident, but is clearly exactly what is needed. The effect is to turn a quite average track into the kind of track that would have fitted quite nicely on Devin’s own ‘Physicist’.
Things maintain an aggressive edge on the bouncy ‘Both Sides All Lies’, but slow a little for ‘This Time Last Week’, which has an excellently paced verse structure, but stumbles with the clunky recitation of the title. Things take an unexpected yet very welcome turn for ‘Spirits Alive’, a slower and more grandiose track that again has a very ‘Dev’ feel about it. Paul Haug has ditched the Araya worship here and has a stab at singing, which he doesn’t do a bad job of at all really, coming across like a more in tune version of Helmet’s Page Hamilton. ‘Hope’ is slightly infuriating, but that’s really just down to personal preference. I have a real aversion to spoken word protest within songs, something that seemed to be unavoidable in the early 90’s for example in Guns N Roses ‘Civil War’, or Queensryche’s ‘Empire’, which this song seems to follow closest, even carrying a similar guitar riff. With that nonsense out the way, the aggression returns for ‘Confusion’s Way’, which has a sound and intensity comparable with later Slayer material, yet slows down and cranks up the groove for the second half. The title track is a pedestrian acoustic effort for the first half, before evolving into a smouldering metal beast. Final track is much the same in reverse, although the most notable part will be a light picked guitar solo that will be familiar to anyone who grew up as I did watching children’s TV show Rainbow.
‘The Internal Dialogue’ is a very interesting and engaging album, but falls a little short of being a triumph. Musically it’s top notch, with some great guitar and drum work courtesy of the Haug brothers, and a real mix of diverse musical influences fused together in seamless fashion. There is something missing though, and it’s that that stops me fully and unreservedly recommending it, and that’s that it just isn’t particularly catchy or memorable, save for a few moments in a few of the songs. It’s a shame really, because there’s really nothing bad about it at all, and it clear why Devin Townsend has thrown his weight behind them too, there’s a wealth of talent there. Will this increase break Contrive worldwide though? I’d hope so, but I doubt it.
http://www.myspace.com/contriveaustralia
