Brontide - Artery

With little hesitation, Brontide were filed next to Chicagoan instrumental trio Russian Circles, but to give them their due they are less prone to the extended vacillation and navel-gazing noodling that can mar instrumental metal for some. Instead, they tend keep things moving at an energetic and exuberant pace, with enough dense melodies and about-face turns to keep it all interesting. As for the record itself, Sans Souci had a touch of the prog post-rock symphony about it, an unbroken 56 minutes that tip-toed an admirably fine and commercially intelligible line between dapper and genteel math rock and filthy sludge indulgences. The growling and grumbling riffs, interlaced with intricate patterns, could grow into grandiose movements or dissolve into episodes of contemplative tenderness, usually in the space of the same song.

It’s this structural approach that survives on Artery, even if the sweeping orchestral stylings of its predecessor don’t. Opener “Tonitro” is a slow burner of looped guitar couplets over a rising, restless, harmonic wail – so far, so prog – and when the chugging riffs and snares kick in midway through, they are joined by what sounds suspiciously like a “He-ey, wo-oah” vocal. The usual mathcore patterns prevail, but the central motif is played out by quietly inflected keys, unremarkable but for their forcing the realisation that the composition and production values here tend away from the prized “live” feel of Sans Souci and more towards a studied outcome. That motif emerges again on lead single “Bare My Bones”, with its thunderous first half of soaring solos and drumming so furious that it must be a fire hazard. Again, though, the track cedes to twinkling, reflective, shallow guitar tones. Similarly exemplary in this vein is “Knives”, the eight minute centrepiece of the record, replete with languorous echo-swimming loops, zapping, shivering rewound notes, and a thumping mid-section of snarling riffs and drum crescendos. When it seems as though it will finally rattle along toward its close on a ponderous alt-rock melody, it is subsumed by the clamorous gnashing teeth of Bowerman’s cymbals, summoning the spirit of Don Caballero’s Damon Che. The very essence of instrumental rock is sonic reinvention, divergent and episodic structures between and within songs that don’t so much compensate for the lack of a vocal spine as trample victoriously on the very notion that they need are missing one.

To this end, Artery by-and-large eschews the orchestral narrative of Sans Souci in favour of what is a more groove-driven record. Whether contained within the angular shuffle that introduces “Kith and Kin” (again making use of an eerie electro vocal effect) or the irrepressible indie disco jive of standout track “Cabin”, Brontide’s sophomore effort has an ear for muscular, danceable movements in the midst of its moshing and intermittently maudlin melodies. “Still Life” is a kind of picturesque mise-en-son in itself, never reaching the cataclysmic heights of the other songs here, preferring to amble along on mischievous loops that never quite become complacent to the point of triviality; there are no wasted notes here.

There are the screeching speed solos of “Caramel” that hark back to “Arioso” from Sans Souci, but overall the feeling is that these episodes constitute only one aspect of the record, not necessarily its showpiece, its crowning glory. Speaking to Best Fit back in 2011, Hancock conceded that Brontide was never intended as a money-spinner, and that in any case, instrumental rock certainly isn’t the genre for that kind of thing. He also said that, with their debut behind them and with no need to rush into anything, whatever followed would be superior. The two statements may be linked, though not by nefarious design. Artery is indeed a more polished and precisely constructed record, and for all its math-lite grooves is not so much a departure from what made Sans Souci a great debut but is rather an extension of their repertoire, an audibly evolved step forward into productive and verdant territory. It might even make them a few quid.