Aliases – ‘Derangeable’ [Review]
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According to the press release that accompanied my review copy of Derangeable, Aliases are “for fans of tech-progressive metal and heavy bendy guitars that go WEEAAAAOORGGHHH CHUG CHUG”.
I can’t argue with that – but I would hasten to add that Derangeable will also satisfy your cravings for guitars that go “BEEADOODLEBEEP,” time changes that would give Stephen Hawking a migraine, and the kind of screams you’d normally associate with a Saw movie.
Derangeable is not a nice album by any stretch of the imagination. The first half a second or so is quite low-key, containing little more than an inhaled breath – but then the shit hits the fan in the least shitty way possible. Aliases have a well-established reputation for marrying brain-imploding brutality with virtuosic melodicism – and opening track Find Where You Hide does nothing at all to tarnish that which precedes it.
This is the kind of album that makes you want to start a circle pit wherever you are – and so it’s probably best not to listen to it while waiting for a train, or eating at Nando’s. Everything Is Upon Us contains tap-happy moments that are just straight up silly (and equally awesome); Back To The Start chugs its way toward spacious Tool-summoning grooves and psychotic stabs; Smile All You Like opens with an intro that sounds like The Aristocrats on crystal meth; Deep Sea Avenue’s double-kick barrages drag its grooves into the realm of the unfathomable; and Uncontrollable Desires proves appropriately unrestrained, churning furiously, the musical equivalent of white water rafting.
Fuck.
This takes us just beyond the halfway point, by the way.
By the time we hit seventh track Callous, only a dickhead would doubt the sheer force of intent that Aliases have applied to Derangeable’s creation. Derangeable has no weak link: Face For Lust opens with fish-out-of-water acoustic melodies before collapsing into epic heaviness; Seen It All will make you glad you don’t have to memorise how to play the damn thing; Untangled Mind may lean heavy on 4/4, but after so much rhythmic insanity common time actually winds up sounding weird as hell; and Above The Sky merges heavenly synths with more techy shenanigans, finally fading out like a lone cowboy riding into the sunset…while desperately trying to fend off a swarm of killer bees.
Overall: Bloody hell. Just…bloody hell. Derangeable is easily one of the best tech-metal releases you’ll hear all year. No doubt whatsoever.
TMMP RATING: 100% (Essential Listening!)
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