Continuo Renacer - The Great Escape review

01. The Great Escape
02. Give Up Tomorrow
03. For Those Things To Come
04. Facing Fears
05. The Newborn


This is some wanky, jazzy, death-injected prog that doesn't suck.

But before all but two of you leave, The Great Escape is also one of those albums that's so quirky it's kind of a must listen.  Thing is, Continuo Renacer aren't "hey look how clever we are, now you see me, now you don't", Criss Angel chilling with Herman Li, overly-indulgent kind of douchebags.  They might really be batshit insane.  Just speculating, of course, but the psychosis audible on this seems genuine.

The Great Escape is basically what you'd get if you took a slab of Primus, a pinch of Obscura, and a handful of Gary Busey telepathically communicating with an umbrella, then mixed them in an old industrial-strength blender. With almond milk. It's a loony. It consists mostly of dissonant, polyrhythmic whateverthefucks from the guitars, getting a lot of its melody from its bass. Excluding the brief phone recording bits during the first track, there aren't any vocals either (a good decision). The instruments coast and hiccup then shatter then coast then explode then coast together, and so on. It does seem pretty aimless by the end, but, strangely enough, aimless in a good way.

The band's myspace page says they're stuff is part death metal, which is true to an extent. A bit like how Subway sandwiches can be good for you.  If you took out all of the parts that make this tasty, yeah, there'd be some death metal left.  But, last time I checked, half a footlong on whole wheat bread with lettuce and vinegar isn't really a rewarding thing to chew on.  The weird synthy, jazzy, wtf injections on it are what make this album fun.  Despite the decent number of solid death riffs, it's an offbeat, proggy sort of deal first and foremost. One that just happens to get a little brutal sometimes. Nevertheless, the death metal injections were necessary too. A hoagie without bread and lettuce is a piece of shit.

This is some prog strangeness to melt into when, after a hard day not having a job and lurking on the old MS, you've got nothing better to do than zone out and enjoy a flashback or five. One more inane comparison: Listening to it is like kicking back in some surreal, Rocko's Modern Life-esque living room, watching Decapitated jam with Silvio Berlusconi on T.V., with someone babbling distorted riffs at you from behind the couch, and having one of Herbie Hancock's jazz fusion groups laying down fills from the kitchen for when commercials come on.  Sometimes a pretty sweet setup, for sure.

Standout tracks: "The Newborn" and "Give Up Tomorrow"