An album composed of splintering guitars, snapping drums and unconventional time signatures. An album in which vocals switch between whispers and screams on a twopenny. An album that blurs the lines of rock and metal and shrouds them in darkness. An album that has been four years in the making. Until now this could have been an introduction to Tool's latest full-length '10,000 Days'. But for this; an album that not only reaches the expectations set for it, but exceeds then by some distance.
Not that Immune have created a carbon clone of Maynard James Keenan's prog-rock blueprint, they just possess the same flair for experimentation and appreciation for the unknown, and while songs such as 'Selling Screen' can be compared to some of TooL's earlier material other tracks veer greatly from it.
Take 'Monkey' for example, which melts the controlled experimentation of Kid A era Radiohead into the multi-dimensional guitar bursts of Oceansize and Khoma. At a contrast 'Monotany' sounds close to Martin Grech's more tender moments, and 'To The Flux' wouldn't sound out of place on Korn's latest album.
However 1/f is not as cluttered as you would expect and somehow Immune remain coherent while taking their music through innumerous s-bends and stop starts. Its taken a long time in coming and may be overshadowed by the sheer number of releases currently bleeding the ‘experimental-rock’ market out but i/f is a triumph for British rock and well worth investing in.
-
8Jordan Dowling's Score