The Contortionist

The Contortionist claimed adventurous and experimental progressive heavy metal as their stock in trade at their 2007 inception in the Indianapolis underground. Across four albums, they’ve crafted a musical identity championed by a diverse audience, demonstrated by the feverish support of fans who’ve seen them on tour with similarly-minded heavy music luminaries like Deftones, Periphery, Between The Buried And Me, and Animals As Leaders.

The band’s blistering new EP sees The Contortionist step outside the atmospheric storytelling of their critically lauded conceptual masterpiece Clairvoyant (2017) to indulge an aggressive shadow side. More an anthology of standalone bursts of intensity, rounded out by a stunningly captivating cover of The Smashing Pumpkins “1979,” OUR BONES isn’t a mere stopover between albums. It’s both a definitive look back and an ambitious leap forward.

“We try to do something different with everything we create,” explains vocalist Michael Lessard. “With our albums we tend to work with overarching interconnected themes. Our Bones is a departure. It offered an opportunity to dive into some things we haven’t had a chance to explore and the shorter EP format allowed us to be hyper-focused on each song.”

Metal Injection praised Clairvoyant for its “impactful, ambitious, and unified” sound, likening the band’s creative and stylistic evolution to that of Opeth, TesseracT, and Anathema. In an enthusiastic 5 out of 5 review, the never-easy-to-impress heavy music subculture tastemaker Metal Sucks called Clairvoyant “a perfect album” and rightfully declared, “The Contortionist have thrust themselves into the conversation for being one of metal’s all-time greats.”

The deathcore infused brutality of early missives Exoplanet (2010) and Intrinsic (2012) laid the foundation for the two epic slabs that followed. An ever-growing audience first welcomed the modern lineup of Lessard, Eric Guenther (keyboards), Jordan Eberhardt (bass) and cofounders Robby Baca (guitar), Joey Baca (drums), and Cameron Maynard (guitar) on Language (2014), which earned perfect scores from both Substream and Prog Metal Zone.

Crafted in the compound owned by producer/engineer John Douglass (Coheed & Cambria, Bad Wolves, Carnifex), where the guys were able to both live and work, Our Bones began with some ideas Robby Baca would regularly run through at the band’s sound checks. “Once I was finally able to get Robbie to record that riff we started piecing together the song in the back of the van, while on tour in Europe,” Lessard recalls. The end result was lead single “Early Grave,” an expression of gratitude to the fans who’ve shared their stories of heartbreak, loneliness, depression, and found new strength in the music of The Contortionist.

“All Grey” combines some long gestating musical compositions with new flourishes, resulting in a cathartic release of sonic energy. “Follow” explores the self-defeating traps brought on by a lack of perspective, ultimately encouraging an iconoclastic approach to life in line with the band’s relentless musical individualism. The Smashing Pumpkins are a favorite of Guenther in particular and their take on “1979” fit seamlessly with their overall aesthetic. Our Bones was mixed/mastered by longtime collaborator Jamie King (Between The Buried And Me, Through The Eyes Of The Dead), who worked on Language and Clairvoyant.

While The Contortionist ultimately have proven themselves masters of psychedelic enhanced experimentation and trippy melodicism, endearing them to fans of later period Enslaved and Sigur Ros alike, they have never fully forsaken the urgent impact of tech-leaning extremity. Critics and fans admire the group’s intelligent approach to the brutal grooves of death metal, with vibrant elements of ambitious post-rock and jazzy / fusion-infused virtuosity. Even when angular riffs, odd-time signatures, and devastating breakdowns give way to hypnotic and ethereal trancelike musical meditations, The Contortionist never lack in absolute power.

“From The Beatles to Pink Floyd to Mastodon, all the great rock bands in history have clear, non-linear musical trajectories,” Metal Sucks observed. “It’s great to see a band taking chances and moving forward. The result is a fully formed band, four albums in, to which no other bands compare. Literally: no one else sounds like The Contortionist even a little.”