Before you start reading this, before you start listening to this album, Google "The Contortionist-Nonmanual Dexterity". Listen to the whole song, even if you're familiar with it. Then come back.
------------------------------------
Pretty bad right? It isn't until the halfway that listeners realize it's the first of two demo versions of the popular TC track "Flourish". But unless they made it past the first three minutes, most of those listeners would have likely shelved this band in "Generic Deathcore", for a long time.
Point being, few people could have predicted "Language" coming from these guys. But fast-forward six years and it happened. And it is beyond what any of us could have imagined.
First, let's talk Mike Lessard. Not a lot of skepticism when news broke out that he was the new vocalist, which is an absolute rarity. Then again, any fans of Last Chance To Reason knows Lessard is the obvious pick for The Contortionist, because he was already combining harsh vocals with celestial cleans around the same time Jonathan Carpenter was with TC. Lessard gives "Language" the effervescent vocals it deserves. His voice radiates through the music in such a way that he never did with LCTR, and it's a sound Carpenter was only marginally far from. Of note as well around 85% of the album is clean vocals, which is huge when you look back to "Apparition" where that percentage was 0%.
However "Language" is still pleasantly heavy. While "Language I" opens with ambient guitar "Language II" opens up with some "Dillinger Escape Plan-esque" riffs, both of which the overall complexity of the instrumental aspect of the album. There's a prominent blend between calm and chaos, a blend the reminds me of the band Porcupine Tree. "Thrive" is a perfect example of this, it has the ambient progressive metal element that The Contortionist has long been searching for, effervescent tranquility that doesn't shy away from brutal guitar solos.
As for lyrics, "Language" barely misses the mark. It's a solid concept, beautiful and clear to the listener what they're trying to convey. It's also admirable how they aim for a poetic feel with recurring themes throughout, similar to what TesseracT does with "Concealing Fate". However, it's too ambitious, and the result is that it sounds at times as if they've ran out of lyrics. It would be one thing if between "Language I" and "The Parable", none of the lyrics were repeated. But that's not the case, and by the end of the album, the listener has heard "Drift with the Ebb and Flow" and "Ever Flowing, Ever Echoing" too many times to count. Even though in retrospect, those are beautiful lyrics.
Overall, 4/5. The Contortionist does not fail to please with "Language", and I'm looking forward to purchasing a CD copy!
