{"id":45514,"date":"2014-10-06T21:09:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T02:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=45514"},"modified":"2014-10-06T21:10:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T02:10:10","slug":"synaptik-the-mechanisms-of-consequence-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/synaptik-the-mechanisms-of-consequence-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Synaptik | The Mechanisms of Consequence<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SynaptikUK-based technical metal band Synaptik makes their debut this year with a full-length album titled The Mechanisms of Consequence<\/em>. Synaptik is a new band, but its members have an established track record. Guitarist Ian Knight, vocalist John Knight and bassist Kev Jackson were previously in the band Inner Sanctum (whose 2013 collection Knowledge At Hand: The Anthology<\/em> is highly recommended), and you can hear that band\u2019s roots in Synaptik\u2019s sound.<\/p>\n

With The Mechanisms of Consequence<\/em>, Synaptik pays tribute to classic technical metal bands like Atheist, Anacrusis, Hades and Watchtower while incorporating elements of modern prog, thrash and more aggressive metal (anywhere from Mindwork to Between the Buried and Me). The end result is a perfect storm of metal aggression and technical precision. Like a more accessible Watchtower, and with a more metal crunch to go along with the mathematics. With harsh vocals it could pass for a technical death metal album. The vocals are clean though, and quite effective at that. Knight has a great range and plenty of power, sounding a bit like Warrell Dane and Matt Barlow at times. Speaking of vocals, the CD version of The Mechanisms of Consequence<\/em> boasts an alternate version of the song \u201cYour Cold Dead Trace\u201d featuring former Watchtower frontman Alan Tecchio singing, which is a nice nod to one of the band\u2019s obvious influences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour Cold Dead Trace\u201d (either version), \u201cVacancy of Mind\u201d and \u201cAllies\u201d are highlights of the album, but The Mechanisms of Consequence is very strong from start to finish, and at 52 minutes it never starts to drag the way some longer prog metal albums tend to do.<\/p>\n

The Mechanisms of Consequence<\/em> is one of those albums that has the potential to win over converts from multiple genres (in this case progressive and thrash metal), but in a year loaded with great releases also has the potential to be overlooked completely. Here\u2019s hoping that isn\u2019t the case. If you like your technical metal to have some heavy metal spirit and your thrash to have a strong technical side, Synaptik is a band you\u2019re going to want to check out.<\/p>\n

Genre: Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal<\/p>\n

Lineup:
\nIan Knight (g)
\nKev Jackson (b)
\nJohn Knight (v)
\nPete Loades (d)
\nJack Murton (g)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tTruths That Wake
\n2.\tA Man Dies
\n3.\tI Am the Ghost (Intro)
\n4.\tYour Cold Dead Trace
\n5.\tIrresistible Shade
\n6.\tVacancy of Mind
\n7.\tAs I Am, As I Was
\n8.\tUtopia In Our Eyes
\n9.\tAll Lies (Intro)
\n10.\tAllies
\n11.\tYour Cold Dead Trace (Alan Tecchio version)<\/p>\n

Label: Rebel Tune Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.synaptikmetal.com<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven Rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — UK-based technical metal band Synaptik makes their debut this year with a full-length album titled The Mechanisms of Consequence. Synaptik is a new band, but its members have […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":45703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,1098,10078,9638,10077,1101],"class_list":{"0":"post-45514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-progressive-metal","10":"tag-rebel-tune-records","11":"tag-synaptik","12":"tag-the-mechanisms-of-consequence","13":"tag-thrash-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}