Reaffinity is the kind of project that, right from their debut, makes music that gets a progressive metal head like me hooked onto their music from the very first second. On their debut, “Tether”, they take you through a labyrinthine, and frankly, insane juggernaut of musical artistry that left my mouth agape, and my mind put asunder. Keep reading for my thoughts!
This whole album is an odyssey– a journey through one musical idea after another, that all starts with the intro track, “Stake”– as the tension steadily builds over the near minute this intro runs for, with the drums steadily holding the four, only to give way to the holy trinity of progressive metal music– changing meters, polyrhythms and ever-evolving musical motifs on the title track, “Tether”. As the song unfurls, playing hide-and-seek with my internal metronome, with switch ups in the most unpredictable of places, it keeps itself together extremely well, and as the chorus rings out, there is a feeling of resolution, of peace as all the musical motifs I was introduced to, come together. I liken the sound here, already, to the likes of TesseracT and, hell, even some early Gojira, especially with the long, strung-out guitar riffs that chug together in unison.
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The madness, for lack of a better word, continues on “All Along”, which continues on odd meters and certifiably very complex ideas that really come into their own once you have given your ears time to calibrate to Reaffinity’s sound. The middle of the album, “Later On”, seems to take a little break from the tens of meter changes per song, to settle into a more relaxed-sounding 4/4 signature, but the drummer really comes into their own here, with surgical precision and great feel in the drumming– in fact, I would venture so far as to say that “Later On” is a showcase of the drumming on this album.
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“Golden Hearts” and “Transitions” play the perfect closers to this album, with the production and the songwriting remaining solid from the first second, continuing on to the last. There is only what I can define as an epitome of mastery in the production of the entire album, and the songwriting that effortlessly holds all of the varied and odd time signatures together, with the mixing and mastering playing perfect support roles to keep all of these layers separated and comprehensible. The sound stage is vast, expansive, and layered with excellent glue at the low end, staying true to the necessities and the hallmarks of a well-engineered metal record.
Overall, this album, “Tether”, reminds me of everything that is great about progressive metal. In case I haven’t said it already, this album is a certified masterpiece. “Tether” by Reaffinity gets my two-thumbs-up recommendation! Check out the album here:
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