The Contortionist at Ground Control on 2010-07-28

Jonathan queuing up some samples before he lays into another verse

Indianapolis, IN’s very own The Contortionist continue to further cement the Midwest’s current run of well developed metal bands. They play what I can only describe as a “heavier” version of the same epic space/ambient metal that Rosetta. Lots time signature changes, keyboard samples/atmospherics, killer breakdowns and blast beats, massive riffs backed by overdriven distortion that blows amps. I have to say this is “heavier” because, while very similar to Rosetta, the band employs more traditional death metal styled vocals without any extra vocoding or filtering. Jonathan, their lead singer and keyboard player, told me that their next album Exoplanet is a concept album based around the “sounds of the universe”; this too sets them apart from other bands in the same genre. In songs such as SHAPESHIFTER, and Eyes Closed sound akin to planets exploding or stars dying with massive amp stacks backing them up.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say they’re my favorite new national band of the year.