Escapethecult, featuring Primus drummer Tim Alexander, Kamlath bassist Peter Shallmin, King Diamond and ex-Mercyful Fate guitarist Mike Wead and current Uneven Structure vocalist Matthieu Romarin, isn't exactly what you would expect. It isn't heavy music nor does it move at much more than a plodding pace. I even called their debut single boring (which you can hear at the end of this post) and said I wanted to hear it in context before completely dismissing this album. Now I can honestly, and in good faith, sit here and tell you that the debut Escapethecult record All You Want To is pretty damn good.
The album opens up with "Backfired," and rather than trying to immediately grab you with some bombastic riff or insane noise, it just immediately starts up like you've been listening for the past 20 minutes and this is the next section to a song. All You Want To never really leaves this tempo either, but certainly makes use of the spartan writing. Songs like "Feel the Flight" incorporate some shreddy guitar leads that fit the music rather than spew out nonsense for the sake of shred, while songs like "Tired of the Past" utilize a shuffle groove that seem to have drank far too much one night and forgot what the hell a shuffle groove was in the first place. Couple these aspects with the fact that music is recorded without much in the way of reverb or anything extraneous going on and you have a solidly written album.
All You Want To doesn't rely on tricks and flashing lights to impress the listener. What you're getting is well written music that fills out the frequency spectrum nicely and grooves along with plenty of very, very intricate twists and turns that never once scream "HOLY SHIT THIS IS PROGRESSIVE ROCK LOOK WHAT WE DID THERE." While the vocals and guitars are well-played and certainly important to the music, endless kudos need to be given to drummer Tim Alexander and bassist Peter Shallmin for their work in holding these songs together. While Alexander keeps a steady groove going with maybe half his limbs and dances around that basis with the others, Shallmin isn't afraid to play single note grooves, big chords where they're needed and even speed himself up to match a particularly fast run.
It's almost tough to call the combination of Alexander and Shallmin a "rhythm section," because they're providing just as much backdrop as the guitars and vocals do for them to go a little crazy at points. It's an incredible dynamic to the album that'll keep listeners coming back for more.
I wasn't sold on the first listen of All You Want To, I'll be honest. There's so much going on in such little space that it's almost overwhelming on the first few listens, especially considering the whole album seems to have been written as one continuous work that modulates around a core tempo. Then all of a sudden it clicked: this isn't supposed to be a heavy record, nor is it supposed to be some "groove metal" record where everyone's playing the same rhythm and monotonous vocals take the helm. All You Want To is a record that takes all your concentration and rewards you with an intricate trance of complex music that deserves to be called progressive because of how forward-thinking the music is.
There are no pitfalls into stereotypes here. This is highly original music done up by musicians who made their names blowing people's minds, and the musical world will be a slightly better place once this is out.
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