Warthur Whereas most post-metal bands look to the textures of bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai for the post-rock side of their sound, Intronaut on Prehistoricism look more to jazzier and more complex groups such as Tortoise or the more math rock-inclined post-rock groups. This is a true asset, because it allows them to craft near-seamless transitions between these sections and the crushing jazz-influenced technical death metal that forms the other half of the whole. Overall, the album widens the horizons of both the post-metal and technical death metal genres and captures the band in very form indeed, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in progressive or technically complex metal.

topofsm Gaining respect in the past few years, Intronaut stands out as the prime progressive sludge band these days. It's not that Mastodon has gone a more proggy route or that Isis has disbanded, it's that they've emerged from their primordial waves of sound and filled a niche that is entirely their own, and by their progression since this album and the last, it seems that they may be staying here comfortably for a long time.

Valley of Smoke stands out in the sludge genre by being a bit more prog-oriented than, say, the repetitive post-metal roots of Isis or Pelican. Rather, instead of repetition, they relish in lots of atmospheric windy soft sections, and during the heavy sections they are in a state of constant change, shifting time signatures and shouting your standard sludge vocals to give some interesting punctuation to other sections. The time changes are never ostentatious technicality though. They serve to give a very amorphous sound to the entire album, giving another layer to the already noisy genre we call sludge.

While this album is totally about the atmosphere, the rhythm section in the group is probably the highlight. Joe Lester's bass has a really fat, jazzy tone that winds around the guitar melodies and chords really well. Meanwhile, Danny Walker does similar things with his percussion, and while it is quite obvious he is skilled at his craft, he performs very tightly and fits the music so well you may not notice the skill required to play those parts. Together, the two pull together the songs, and are the backbone of everything, giving the two other guitars a great foundation for both their reverbing soft guitars or dissonant noisy riffs.

One of the best examples of this tight rhythm section is in the intro to "Core Relations", which is set behind some soft echoing guitars, while the drums and guitar play off each other in a slow, but syncopated and complex manner. They join together so well that they build the haunting atmosphere simply by repetition, before the guitars start to fade in with the growled vocals and distorted riffs. This is probably the highlight of the album, the peak in terms of emotion and sheer songwriting talent.

Probably the other peak would be "Miasma", which is one of the tracks that gives off the most tension in the album. The verses go back and forth between shouted vocals and an emotional sung line, both in the shouted 'caveman' style so frequent in sludge music. This builds an angry and terse mood, and when the atmosphere drops in, the solemn guitar seems to acknowledge these emotions and release the tension, until it all builds into a heavy explosion of noise towards the end.

Valley of Smoke is definitely one of the stronger albums of 2010, being one where technical musicianship can go hand in hand with creating exactly the kind of atmosphere meant for sludge. It's such a cliche saying a band is really technical but the technicality works for the album, but in this case their musicality and ear for what works in a good atmospheric sludge song makes their level of musicianship shown absolutely perfect for sludge. The band knows exactly what to do to build more tension at the time, whether it's a quick shift in rhythm or an odd note choice or even simply droning on a minor scale riff. This band makes it work, and Valley of Smoke is an excellent example of their talent.

bartosso PREHISTORICISMS is an album of one song. When I've heard Australopithecus for the first time I was amazed! It was something unique and fresh, something disturbing and captivating. The most conspicuous thing is fantastic jazz bass which is very distinct from other instruments and plays very important role in the composition.

So bass work in Australopithecus is great, fine. Guitars are great. Atmosphere is great, very dark and psychedelic. Melodies are great - original, disharmonious at times, jazzy, disturbing, even moving. 5/5 piece. So it's rather obvious, that I expected a fantastic album.

Unfortunately, the rest of the record is much worse. Jazz potential of the band is undeveloped, there is too much repetitive moments, not enough interesting ideas set in a fantastic mood of "Australopithecus". After a few listens growl seems unnecessary, it becomes annoying - still, I like growling in most cases. I would even prefer instrumental arrangements of this material. Some, a few good ideas appear in "Any Port" and in the title track, but it's not enough to change my impression. There is also quite exceptional track which conclude the record. "Reptilian Brain" is a fairly nice song, much softer and atmospheric but it didn't draw my attention as well.

I give it 3 stars. Still, I think this album deserves an attention especially for fantastic bass work and because this band may release a masterpiece someday - I sense a great potential in them. Listening and watching the video clip of Australopithecus is highly recommended!

bonnek It has taken a while to absorb the dense sound of this band. Intronaut sits vocally close to Neurosis, a band that I deeply admire but find hard to get into as well. As usual, it helped to let the album rest for a while and to give it another spin a few months later.

The music is truly unique, an eclectic blend of stoner doom, post metal, jazz progressions and constantly varying tempos and time signatures. Especially the fretless bass and drums are highly captivating and should please all fans of fusion. The rest needs time: the guitars wade through dense chromatic chords and the vocals won't be your preferred option for a romantic night. They are the only element in the music that could be tagged slightly 'extreme' although they are not aggressive, rather heavy, morose and nihilistic. They might be off-putting to sensitive ears but they are not obtrusive and used sparingly.

The nature of the music is rarely violent though, it’s heavy yes, but it’s mainly experimental and, if that matters to you, it’s truly progressive. Yes you can rest assured; the songs aren’t a typical succession of metal riffs. In fact, there are hardly any metal riffs at all, it’s a developing stream of themes, repeated in different tonalities, in constant flux and - well yes – progressing. In fact, there is very little here that you could call metal, especially given how organically this music sounds and flows, which isn’t really a feature of metal. Name it heavy fusion if you like.

It would be hard, but also unnecessary to pick out highlights. This is an album to experience in one sitting. If the vocals put you off, you can have a try at the 16 minute instrumental closing track. It starts with a 5-minute kraut exploration, goes into fusion and culminates with a very dissonant take on Tool and modern King Crimson. So it sums up what these guys are up to in one strong piece. Other songs like Prehistoricisms reveal some Bauhaus and Sonic Youth flavours in the guitar playing next to the prominent Voivod influences.

For once I’m not surprised at the raving reception this album got. This is original and highly challenging music that defies any categorization and deserves 5 stars easily.

Phonebook Eater 7/10

Dinosaur Metal: "Prehistoricisms" is an excellent sophomore for Intronaut.

Intronaut is an American metal band,and this is their sophomore released in 2008,"Prehistoricisms", the follow up to the debut "Void", in 2006. There's isn't much background info of the band besides the debut, so they came pretty much out of nowhere in 2008, and received plenty of acclaim, to the point where many considered "Prehistoricisms" to be the best album of the year. Even though I do find that a bit exaggerated, I really enjoyed it.

When I think of Intronaut's music and this album in particular, I tend to imagine it as dinosaur metal. Seriously though, this music has a lot of Prehistoricisms indeed, enough at least to make me think about such a genre. The music is very rough, the guitars are crunchy, but the rhythm section is the most interesting element; the drums are very tom-focused, almost tribal, the bass extremely virtuous. They have many parts where the two are the main attraction, and the guitar simply accompanies. This is not something new, but how Intronaut does it, there's nobody quite like them. The vocals are always in a metalcore friendly growl, and never are clean, which gives the sound a much more intense feel to it. So Intronaut is an extremely technical band, that happens to love having fossils and primordial beings in their lyrics.

The album is pretty solid, but it has a pretty strong and noticeable progression and climax to it: while the first few songs (actually the best in my opinion) are the shortest and more straight-forward, the songs after, beginning with the title track, get more and more progressive; the songs get longer, the music gets even more technical,with a lot of stop and goes too. The progressiveness reaches its peak with the final track, a song that always amazes me, "The Reptilian Brain", sixteen minutes of epic building, from a sitar-bongo section, it slowly evolves into a fierce piece that takes form only at the end of the track.

"Prehistoricisms" is an excellent album for Intronaut, a band that shows incredible promise, and very possibly will release something greater than this. I recommend it to whoever is into prog metal, but the buildings and stop and goes makes me believe that even the most die-hard prog rock fan will enjoy this.