Written by Carcassbomb
- Igorrr
- Spirituality and Distortion
- Avant Garde
- France
- March 27, 2020
- Via Metal Blade
- 8.5/10
Alright! Been excited for this one. The first single that dropped for “Very Noise” with the weird ass video was a strategic move on the part of Igorrr as it was very much a track that was hard to decipher and didn’t give much away, being purely a noise orientated and atmospheric piece with a bit of a technical guitar melody at the end. The opening of Spirituality and Distortion however, assures us of the heavy, more metal aspect of the Igorrr sound. Mixed in various ways with contrasting genre elements, naturally.
There aren’t many super noticeable differences from previous records but it does play out differently as a whole. The bass playing (programming?) is extra chunky and stands out a lot giving it a heavy essence even when the rest of arrangement doesn’t reflect that. The George Fischer collab in particular is one I was waiting to hear and it does not disappoint. His vocals are as deep and wet as ever with a nice display of range and the way Igorrr places the music around his vocals is a fresh context for them, as well as the way the vocals themselves are manipulated with chip tune jigs. It’s exactly what you want from both of these people and at the same time.
There’s a decent amount of music here coming in at just under an hour and all of it has some kind of point or unique angle. There’s a lot of guitar presence across the album fluctuating between distorted metal progressions and acoustic instruments often of the exotic variety. The overall vibe is more of the same expected strangeness but with the feel of a bigger band which I think is the result of so much collaboration. More time is spent on one idea such as a metal riff or a violin part rather than the manic switching every few seconds. This extended focus provides a lot of poignant moments as stories are given room to play out in a much more dramatic way. It allows you to really get a grasp on the moment and follow it into oblivion.
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“Barocco Satani” for example isn’t that far off being a Virgin Black song with wistful opera vocals and a constant underlying buzz of a distorted guitar using string instruments as a sort of flourish. I enjoy this direction a lot as it does a lot to elevate the usual Igorrr tropes. It’s an album that acts as a great entry point as it is grounded in more stable and familiar elements while still upholding the Igorrr music ideology of contrast and borrowing from the past. With that said I can also see some long time fans being a little underwhelmed by the lack of shocking surprise, Spirituality and Distortion does not offer any breakthrough or huge change but it does play out really bloody nicely. The Cannibal Corpse crossover track is the height of the albums experimentation and mold defiance where the rest of it is a much appreciated dose of the usual flavor.
The guy can’t make anything bad so you can rest assured of that bottom line. Be prepared for more beauty and elegance than trickster god playground music. It’s a circus of poetry and a feat of motion, which appears to be reflected by the fantastical album art compared to the more disturbing images of past records. If you’re a party boy and you came here to clown then you won’t exactly go home empty handed either, the final track “Kung-Fu Chèvre” is one of the fastest and most varied yet. It seems to be an homage to the older style – even going as far as to reuse a familiar scream from previous songs. Hell, it all could have been recycled parts of old songs.
Igorrr has come to please everyone with this new album and I think that is achieved. I just hope we will get more bizarre video content.
8.5/10
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