Customer Reviews

Cortical Tectonics

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Canvas Solaris' previous album Penumbra Diffuse was such a stylistic transition from their extreme technical metal roots to a more atmospheric, keyboard-heavy style that many of their fans were utterly surprised. Without abandoning their calculated compositions infused with thunderous rhythm syncopation and driving lead solos, they adopted well written synth patches and acoustic passages for good measure.

Their new CD Cortical Tectonics now achieves the perfect balance between the band's earlier heavy stylings and their new-found progressive experiment. The six tracks on the CD are carefully divided into two parts, with the first two songs, "Berserker Hypothesis" and "Sinusoid Mirage", being the ruthless heavy pieces, dominated by Nathan Sapp and Ben Simpkins' heavy-duty guitar riffs and Hunter Ginn's rolling drum work. The guitarists fire off shred-intensive electric riffs with machine-like precision, underscoring the odd-metered drumming. The first track does boast a little acoustic passage defined by a very creepy tone, but other than that it is quite heavy. "Sinusoid Mirage", on the other, starts out slowly, borrowing some cool shaker sounds by guest musician Matt Johnson, and highlights the glistening cymbal work and yet another storm of doomsday riffs.

The band's brooding atmospheric side comes through on "Interface", which also sees a great clean acoustic part by Brian Simpkins, who is normally responsible for the bass and rhythm guitars in the band. Sapp injects an elaborate synth patch into the song lending it a great melody, and the bass motif that rumbles atop is amazing. Ginn concludes the song with his trademark glockenspiel, but his diverse rhythm work isn't as profound on Cortical Tectonics as it was on Penumbra Diffuse. This certainly has to do with the album being more guitar-influenced, thus leaving him less space to demonstrate his ethnic drumming. That said, on the 17-minute "Reticular Consciousness", the band's longest song to date, every aspect of their previous work is emphasized. Ginn gets to lay down a killer tribal solo employing lots of conga and Moroccan Clay drumming, whilst Sapp exacts myriad synth tones through the song's course. He even uses the weird Tangerine Dream-like patch somewhere in the end, which greatly adds to the diversity of the composition.

"Gamma Knife" emphasizes intricate rhythms and arrangements, exuding double-tracked atonal licks and rapid-fire riffery. At one point, the riffing becomes so intense and bent that it is wrenched into a nasty breakdown, which creates a dense, suffocating attack. "Rhizome", on the other hand, is the band's study in the light/dark contrast a la King Crimson and Mr Bungle. It starts out very mellow, bringing forth eerie acoustic guitars, but they quickly morph into hammering electric leads that collapse in on themselves.

The packaging of the album is almost identical to Penumbra Diffuse, with a carboard pack with the credits and liner notes written inside. As with its predecessor, the production and mixing is great, rendered with a strange immediacy to it. The trio in Canvas Solaris still continue to churn out uncompromising compositions and defy traditional musical standards. This album is yet another excellent addition to their body of work, but to me, Penumbra Diffuse is still their most accomplished album.

Along with Planet X's Quantum, Cortical Tectonics is 2007's most essential instrumental album.

Not much to add to the other reviews here.

If you like tech-metal, buy this disc and all of their others. If you don't know what tech-metal is, believe in the fate that brought you this far and just buy this disc and all of their others.

It sounds like solar flares to me, arcing through a thousand degree corona surrounding a hydrogen furnace hot enough to fuel everything within millions of miles, tracing lines through the void. That's what it sounds like to me. Onomatopoeia.

I've listened to all of Canvas Solaris' stuff over the last couple of years and all are great, this one included. If you like instrumental music that is above average this and/or the other Canvas Solaris CDs should be in your collection.

I think the tital of the review says it all. And also the word nasterpiece some to mind. I'm still as impressed with this album as I was on the day when a friend first showed it in part to me. It's impossible to single out a favourite track, but some of them are:

Berserker, interface, and Gamma Knife. The massive 17 minute Reticular Consciousness is also extreamly impressive. If like me, you are a fan of great instrumental metal, then this one is a must for for your collection!

Cortical Tectonics isn't necessarily a bad album- more like a completely mediocre one.

While the idea of progressive metal has been beaten into the ground by this point, the genre unfortunately continues producing new musicians that basically do nothing but recycle the same old riffs over and over again that the previous generation helped to create.

As a dedicated music fan, I find this slightly offensive. I grew up when originality and new experiments (along with songwriting) were considered the most important aspects of music. Cortical Tectonics does nothing original or terribly interesting.

I can be a *little* bit lenient in the originality department, but the songwriting is another disappointing factor we have to consider. I'd be perfectly willing to ignore how generic the prog metal genre has become if the actual riffs were any good. Unfortunately in the case of Cortical Tectonics, they're not.

Basically this album has one really big problem- these songs progress, but they do so in an extremely bland way. In other words, the band members took one or two guitar riffs, chose to repeat them for several minutes, and then shift to a NEW set of riffs to beat into the ground. Rinse and repeat. That's what these songs are like, seriously.

With that said, the results work occasionally, such as on the second track titled "Sinusoid Mirage". Some parts of this track surprisingly remind me of the more challenging and experimental aspects of the classic 70's band Gentle Giant. The build-up leading to these Gentle Giant-like chops is pretty good too. A clear highlight to me.

Unfortunately a song like "Interface" comes along and, while it contains a good atmosphere of being trapped in a jungle or shoved inside a Mortal Kombat game (or however you want to interpret it) it's unbelievably repetitive. Those same sets of riffs just keep chugging along. The band is probably trying to build an interesting atmosphere, but it would have worked a heck of a lot better had those riffs been trimmed down considerably.

"Gamme Knife" shows a much heavier side of the band. It's not groundbreaking though- we've heard heaviness in progressive metal for years now. It's basically a classic Queensryche ripoff.

"Rhizome" reminds me of some kind of slushy and dated mid 80's music recording equipment, and "Reticular Consciousness" takes me back to the Queensryche comparisons. The similarities to Queensryche are very very obvious to me whether the band wants to acknowledge them as an influence or not.

Overall, I've heard worse but I've *definitely* heard better.