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Review Summary: Too safe for comfort. Intervals are an instrumental progressive metal band from Canada, and "memory palace" is their fifth studio album. There could be a discussion about whether it's okay for a band to release relatively similar material over the years without taking many risks. When their album "The Shape of Colour" was released, their style of progressive metal felt fresh, bright, uplifting, catchy, and included the necessary amount of djenty chugs to make a big impression. The bass is prominent and audible, and there's also a more technical side to the tracks that adds some flavor throughout. However, this description can be applied to every Intervals album since then, which is a problem.
"memory palace" does have some differences, albeit slight. The production is noticeably different from the band's prior material, but it toes the line of being overproduced. It sounds incredibly mechanical, with everything quantized and snapped to the grid, losing the human touch altogether. Additionally, the new album includes added synths that I'm not a fan of. They sound like cheesy synths from a 90s video game or something. The band's prior production felt more organic, and at least felt like someone was actually behind the kit playing the drums, whereas in the new album, it sounds like just a drum machine a lot of the time, with every kick drum at the exact same frequency. The lack of variety is starting to catch up with them. I gave them a pass on their "Circadian" album, but I was far too generous. Tracks "nootropic" and "neurogenesis" feel too typical for the band, which is irritating.
Overall, I can only recommend "memory palace" to those who are already fans of Intervals; it's unlikely to win over any new fans. Guitarist Aaron Marshall's sense of melody is very distinct, and you can always recognize it's him playing, whether on a featured track or on a track of his own, which merits credit. It's the usual upbeat catchy affair for them, and sometimes it'll have a breakdown at the end, which is far too predictable at this point. It's starting to seem like letting their vocalist go many moons ago is coming back to bite them. Intervals probably should have stayed with vocals, and Aaron made a side project that's instrumental.
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Album Rating: 3.5
Essentially agree. Dude badly needs to explore different guitar tones and stuff. Literally every album sounds the same
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
He had like 5 singles from this and I was hoping for variety but was sadly a bit disappointed. I liked Circadian but this is just like, worse. Why would I listen to this when that album or Shape of Colour exist?
I feel like he is content with releasing very similar toned albums over and over and once he finds a sound, he sticks to it to a huge fault.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
What's with this trend of having everything in damn lower case.. seriously
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
“content with releasing very similar toned albums over and over and once he finds a sound, he sticks to it to a huge fault.”
“Why would I listen to this when that album or Shape of Colour exist?”
Bingo. This is exactly it. This is why I don’t listen to anything post SoC lol
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posd, this is ten times better than your old reviews
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The shape of colour was a beast of an album. might have to sus this
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Yeah your writing has improved immensely good stuff
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Sadly Intervals just doesn’t make memorable tracks. Every track sounds exactly the same, can’t even tell when a song starts/ends. Shame because these guys are really proficient with their instruments.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
To me it’s the guitar tone as much as anything. The songwriting is stale too but that tone he uses for all of his leads and solos gets so old
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Yeah definitely, the same tone on everything is mind numbing at this point
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Fun album!
Good review!
Agree about the synths but those bass licks that are front-and-center on parts of the album….
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Gonna try this one out now; I can't say I've listened to an Intervals album since their first. Seems like Jacob Umansky might be carrying the band on his back now
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had no clue they were still going tbh lol. Doubt this is worth the time
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
SoC is good + everything sounds the same = more good
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
To me, it sounds like the same song with slight variations 8 times over... Something needs to add some variation here, maybe vocals? I don't know. Umansky killing it on the bass as always. Disappointingly average.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
"with every kick drum at the exact same frequency"
Imma nitpick a bit here but the term you're looking for is probably "velocity".
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Actually the correct word would probably be rapidity
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Well.. I've changed my mind about this already, haha. I won't delete the review, though. I still stand by my thoughts in the review. Initially, I was disappointed by the lack of experimentation and the sameness in the music. However, I realized that I don't necessarily need this band to experiment for me to enjoy their music. Intervals serves as a gateway band into this subgenre, and I think that kind of accessibility is necessary. If everything sounded like Animals as Leaders, it would be rather boring. So, basically, I've accepted that I'm the "don't ask questions, just consume product and get excited for the next product" kind of guy, and I've accepted my fate, lol.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Anyways check new Syncatto, Sithu Aye, Vitalism and I don't think they need anymore promo but Night Verses, I guess..
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
look like someone understands my math formula.
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