Customer Reviews

Exoplanet

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is mind blowing all around. It spans the gamut from heavy to super melodic and everything in between. I was lucky to catch the last half of their live set at NEMF April 2011 and they were absolutely incredible. The singer plays keyboard and sings the melodies as well as screams. From watching him you can tell he is on another level than your average metal singer.

Knowing that he plays keys on the album let me hear this in a new light. The song themes and lyrical content also make this band unique. People compare them to BTBAM who played later on that night but The Contortionist's performance blew theirs away in my opinion. Check this album out as well as their EP Apparitions which I've seen many hardcore Contortionist fans proclaim as their best album.

I'm not even sure how you'd classify this band. Sci-tech-metal?

I heard tidbits of songs off this cd ad wasnt impressesd. As a fan of pure tech it wasnt exactly my style. I was listening to the metal channel via direct tv and heard a full length song and was intrueged. 5.99$ for a mp3 download what the heck? After the first listen through, I was shocked, and was in goosbumps. As others have said, possible album of the year! Its not overly technical, not really fast, but exudes maturity in composition rarely achieved. The atmospheric layering in combination with the progressive aspect of the cd left me stunned. It's moody, groovey, and beautiflly brilliant. Every time I listen to the cd, it gets deeper, welcome to the bottom of the ocean, dont drownd.

I just stumbled onto this band last night, holy hell!!! These guys are ridiculous!! The sounds are so eclectic, but mesh well together. Parts of it would fit right in with the Obzen, Periphery, Colors, Animals as Leaders, Circle of Contempt album and more, but you get my point. I'm not saying it's a rip-off of these. This disc stands on it's own for what it is. And that is a well thought out & flawlessly executed prog, djent, grind, tech, deathcore, whatever the hell u call it...it friggin kills!!! GO GET IT!!!

I saw this band while I was waiting for Periphery to get on stage. They didn't quite steal the show, but it was veeeery close. Solid djent, with creative melodies that leave you guessing. I find myself listening to this non-stop for several hours at work; it just doesn't get old.

As far as I'm concerned, the Best Album Of The Year award is between The Contortionist (Exoplanet), TesseracT (One) and BTBAM (The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues), and I really wanna pick them all.

When I first it I was kinda ehh about it, sounded interesting to me.

I bought the CD and right after the song Primal Directive I was hooked.
As a musician this band is incredible, theyre no expendable group. Its great to hear a band that
takes music seriously and not give into trends.

I LOVE every track and the lyrics and concept fit perfectly.
Definatly looking forward to next CD

First off i need to say that this band shouldn't be compared to BTBAM, the only thing they have in common is that there both heavy bands that play pretty technical music, contortionist is more for the hardcore/tech metal crowd though, where as BTBAM is far more diverse and for the progressive metal crowd. That's not to say that Contortionist is just a non stop heavy onslaught of music, they have very cool and melodic breakdowns, but generally there's just a lot of chug chug chug, not that its a bad thing but its a very been there done that feel, from a musicians point of view BTBAM is far more original, anyone who plays an instrument and has heard "colors", "alaska" or "the great misdirect" will understand what im talking about. This bands music is far more graspable and easier to digest while at the same time having an overall element of technicality, which is cool for people who just love to listen to good heavy music, and for that reason i can see this group getting popular fast.

I Give the album a 6.9/10, there were some moments in certain songs that i loved!..but the album as a whole didn't wow or blow me away, perhaps the reviews i read here mislead me, people need to be careful when comparing bands, sometimes people jump to conclusions and overrate certain groups, also i was never into hardcore music and this album has a heavy element of of that style of music

Some people may feel 6.9 is low, but im hearing this right now in 2011 where Dream Theater, Aliases, BTBAM and many other great bands have released awesome new albums, so im really being generous, i have a feeling that if i heard this back around 03 that i would have given it a much higher rating

I really enjoy listening this album. All of the musicians are quite talented that write memorable riffs/melodies. In addition this band has taken many different sounds and created something unique. The only thing that actually prevents me from listening to more that one or two songs at a time is the vocalist. I love vocals in bands like BTBAM and After the Burial, but the vocalist actually annoys my ear to the point where I have to change the song. However, his clean vocals add an interesting sci-fi sound that builds on the sound of the guitars. Overall, this is an excellent album that delivers a unique sound with plenty of brutal AND relaxing melodies.

Stand-out tracks: Flourish, Oscillator, Axiom, Exoplanet I

UPDATE: Their live show was amazing. The singer sounded MUCH better live, nailing all of the vocal parts and improvising some phenomenal keyboard parts. One of their guitarists seemed to be struggling with some of the riffs, but overall great musicality and sound!

This CD is the best. Seriously, this album rips what you know about prog/djent and blends it and goes down smooth. I love BTBAM, and this is a band to compare them to. However, these guys do what BTBAM failed to do for me for years. The vocals are soo much more interesting (the sound, not the lyrics) than BTBAM. The lows and highs are perfectly placed. They don't (ramble if you will) like BTBAM, they are more cut to the chase. Crush you, pick you up, hug you, make love to you, and kill you again. As ridiculous as that sounds, that's what it's like on this album.

For first time fans, listen to Flourish, and Advent. Those are badass tunes that give you a taste of what these guys do. There are some SUPER melodic/beautiful melodies placed on this album as well. I'm a drummer by trade and I love what the guy has done. The guitar work is super creative and innovative. The vocals and keys he plays are right on. And who ever cares about a djent/metal bands bass player, his job is to support guitar and rythym...

This album is a must for any Djent fan. Period. Enjoy the Contortionist, I can't wait to see what they come out with next.

Besides already having a pretty decent EP under their belt, not too much has really been said about The Contortionist. In comes their new album, Exoplanet, during the middle of last year and they somehow manage to still go unnoticed. All I have to say is that if you like progressive metalcore in the vein of Born of Osirus, Circle of Contempt, Veil of Maya, This or Apocalypse and After the Burial then you MUST buy this album! They also have some crazy time signatures and vocal patterns reminiscant of the band Sikth. Add to that some melodic progressive passages with their instruments and vocals much like Between the Buried and Me and you should have a good idea of what they sound like. But don't get me wrong, they sort of wrap all these sounds into one cohesive unique and truly engaging package that shouldn't be ignored. So please do yourself and the band a huge favor and get this album asap!!

I first heard the band about a week ago and I've listened to this album every day since. I very much enjoy metal music that isn't limited to hooks or any sort of chorus/verse/chorus/verse/solo/chorus/chorus formula. While songs that follow that formula or something like it can be very talented and great in their own right, this band has an immense amount of creativity and that's what truly draws me to them. They combine several genres of music and have interesting instrumentation. They will go from in-your-face metal brutality to soft interludes that almost put you in a trance. While it's difficult to compare them to other bands because they almost separate themselves from the genre as a whole, I leave you all with this to consider:
If Between the Buried and Me, Animals as Leaders, Born of Osiris and Russian Circles had a lovechild, it would be this band.