"Mechanical Fiction": The Gorge Explore Prog Metal Without Losing Focus (Early Album Stream)
Extreme music is inherently nerdy. Beyond the lyrical esotericism and pageantry, prog metal in particular can feel like a musician’s idea of good music, with cohesive songwriting sometimes yielding to bombast and self-indulgence.
Not so with The Gorge. Formed by jazz musicians with music education backgrounds, The Gorge’s proggy blend of hardcore and metal manages to showcase members’ chops while delivering on songcraft. The St. Louis act’s third record Mechanical Fiction, due out this Friday via Pelagic records, is tight and tidy without getting tiresome. Touches of math-rock fret tapping and precise time-signature changes open up onto expanses of djent guitar, while guitarist and vocalist Phil Ring’s howls guide the band forward through twisting passages and washes of ambience.
It’s obvious The Gorge’s members have played together for decades—Mechanical Fiction‘s cohesiveness is equal parts sophistication and ease, with the band clearly investing as much in baroque riffage as in tense-and-release song structure. “Beneath the Crust” is a good example, with progressive squalls shifting to sludgy riffs and back again.
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Mechanical Fiction is anchored in human themes, with a central conceit of contemporary mundanity and mental illness born of “living out routines because that is what we are supposed to do, we constantly go through the motions,” says Ring. Closer “Wraith” bears this out with unexpected poignance—though Mechanical Fiction is a fun listen, it steers clear of triviality.
The Gorge make prog metal with humility, substance and more than a touch of expert composition. This four piece have harnessed their jazz skills to create an extreme record that feels exact without being exacting. Stream all of Mechanical Fiction two days before its release below.
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Mechanical Fiction releases July 28th via Pelagic Records.
