Review Summary: A fusion of groove lows and soaring highs, Genesis Not Planet provides an interesting listening experience not unlike its most prominent influences.
Globalization is here, folks. Yes, when you can stumble upon a Russian multi-instrumentalist with strong influences from French groove metallers and a UK djent powerhouse all while living on the East Coast of the United States, it's got to be true. But when you think about it, the concept of economically-linked mutually assured destruction can't be so bad when the other side of the coin is filled with great artists like Gojira, Chimp Spanner, and Genesis Not Planet. Right? ...Right?
Genesis Not Planet is the one-man project of Russian multi-instrumentalist Aleksy Zubrowska. Like so many others appearing from relative obscurity, Zubrowska appears to be self-produced, self-released, and full of talent. As stated above,
All Turn To Dust, Zubrowska's first release under the moniker, draws heavily from the repetitive, cycling low riffs of Gojira to inspire a similarly raw, dark, and gloomy track. Where Genesis Not Planet deviates itself from the trademark Duplantier sound, though, is in its melody, infrequently drawing on lighter, mechanically-tinged leads ala Paul Antonio Ortiz to thin out the sound. To further augment the Gojira-esque sound, the production tends to downplay the latter of the two, ratcheting up the audibility of the lower-end groove and leaving the melodies to only occasionally take dominance of the track.
Of course, there is the odd outlier, such as the intro to "Ascension," which manages to do both of these things at once with one cycling low, yet melodic riff. The same could be said of moments towards the end of "Something in the Sky" where both rhythm and lead seem to become one saw-bending wave. But in the end, the two extremes of the sound work well as well together as they do apart. "Hopesfall," for example, initially harps on the Gojira groove more than any other track, but does so in such a manner similar to the the groove's namesake that it retains its same infectious nature.
And in the end it's some of these very comparable similarities that hold Genesis Not Planet back despite how enjoyable they can be and how well-executed they are. It simply feels that many of the ideas on
All Turn To Dust are re-toolings of thoughts already published. In many cases, the tinkering done by Zubrowska results in perfection relevant to the sound, but still, there's a feeling in listening to
All Turn To Dust that a bit of personality is absent from the musical synthesis of the project. Of course, that's not without exception - "Water, Air, and the Horizon" has its own very distinct sound, at least to begin with, and "All Turn To Dust" brings in a little bit more space from the post-rock elements Zubrowska claims to incorporate.
Yet, what flows into one ear and out the other remains rather impressive. More technical than Gojira's
L'Enfant Sauvage and harder-hitting than Chimp Spanner's most recent release,
All Roads Lead Here,
All Turn To Dust provides a unique crossroads of technical metal's higher and lower tones. And at a price like free, it's sure not to impact that global financial crisis. Right? ...Right?
