Out of San Jose, California comes a three piece progressive metalcore band who has taken the atmospheric, djent, progressive instrumental metalcore sound and somehow made it fresh. That band is Constructs and they are releasing their EP entitled “Shapes” on November 6th. Constructs is composed of Trayen Burke on guitars, Gordo Leete on bass, and Dennis Willoner on drums
With this music, the EP title “Shapes” and the band name Constructs is quite appropriate given the nature of the music. The music takes on multiple forms with multiple layers to unpack, tempo changes that intertwine with one another like a finely woven tapestry, and where it’s not overdone to make it sound intricate and profound.
“Shapes” starts off with a track called “Tempest”. “Tempest” sounds like something that could be cut from a movie score or from an opening cut from a movie scene, before it kicks in to some out of this world breakdowns, guitar harmonics, and rhythmic djent. Immediately, I notice how effortless and seamless the tempo changes are in the music that Constructs creates. Upon each listen, the listener is allowed to peel away another layer that is the Constructs sound. The guitar harmonics are absolutely filthy that kind of makes it a nice blend of Animals As Leaders meets Scale The Summit. The album transitions into another track entitled “Atmospheres”.
“Atmospheres” sounds something that is constructed in the biosphere, troposphere, and in the atmosphere. The beautiful piece about this song is that Constructs serves the song. They focus on the melodic structure and the notes that they play instead of simply trying to sound all technical, which to me could take away from the emotion of the song. Constructs recognizes that serving the song allows the emotion of the song and the story of the song to be profound instead of trying to come up with most complicated and technical solo imaginable, which could compromise the story of the song. Constructs does not fall into that trap, and major props to them for not falling into that trap.
“Shapes” is such an enjoyable listen. It is a great instrumental album that gives the listener and other musicians lessons on how to serve the song and to tell a story in the song. Madness To Creation gives “Shapes” by Constructs an 8.5 out of 10 for the multi-layering, the quality mix of guitar harmonics and djent, and for the song “Atmospheres”. November 6th, go pick up a copy of “Shapes”. Here is the track listing below:
- Tempest
- Atmospheres
- Signals
- Event Horizon
- Fractures
- Drift
Here is the music video to “Atmospheres”
Here is the music video to “Signals”
Check out Constructs at the following locations:
http://constructsband.bigcartel.com/
