The Butterfly Effect -Imago

Wed 28th Jun, 2006 in Music Reviews

It’s commonplace for a band to talk up their new album. Words like ‘mature’, ‘artistic growth’, ‘a broader palette of sounds’ often turn out to be bywords for ‘treading the same ground we’ve done on our old records’. There’s nothing wrong with this in principle, but it’s refreshing to see a band follow their words with evidence in the form of the plastic disc I hold in my hand right now.  The Butterfly Effect have done this, and the results are spectacular.

Imago comes three years after the release of their debut album, Begins Here.  In that time, the nu metal scene has almost completely fallen off the radar.  The band always had far more in their arsenal than many of their contemporaries in that genre, but it was only glimpsed a few times on their first album- a quality record in its own right but at times a little too reliant on no- brainer hard rock rave ups, something the band will confess to themselves.  Imago is an album that lacks the immediacy of ‘Begins Here’, but ultimately proves itself to be a more rewarding and frankly, bloody sensational album. 

It’s strange how the smallest of touches can completely change the context of an album- similar to ‘Begins Here’, Imago opens with a brief, soundscape-esque instrumental passage before launching into the opening track- ‘Aisles of White’.  A track that the band has been performing live for a while, the change in direction is obvious.  The band is unafraid to slow down and focus on building melody, and while the guitar work of Kurt Goedhart was often based around downtuned riffing on previous releases, this album sees him given more space to work with and the results are lead breaks on almost every track and, dare I say it, a ‘broader sound palette’. 

The second track and surely a contender for second single ‘Gone’ is a showcase for the band’s other secret weapon- the at times operatic vocals of Clint Boge.  Soaring over the top of one of the heavier tracks on the album, it’s impossible not to hear the emotion in his voice as he sings ‘I don’t want you, I don’t want you to go’.  Once again, you realise that this is another step up for the band.

First single ‘A Slow Descent’ is the track most reminiscent of previous material, and for that reason is probably easy to see as one of the weaker songs on offer here.  But what it does do is show the power of the band- when the band kicks in around the twenty- five second mark you can already picture the kids going crazy on their upcoming national tour.  ‘Reach’, originally demoed back in 2004, is the oldest track on Imago, is another which manages to exhibit all the band’s strengths in five minutes- a powerful rhythm section, great sense of melody and a vocally gifted frontman.  ‘This Year’ shows Goedhart doing his best Edge impersonation with the song’s delay-laden guitar introduction, just another trick in his ever expanding repertoire. 

‘Everybody Runs’, perhaps the album’s highlight, comes with a bassline you can almost dance to and leaves you wondering if the band has gone so far as to completely abandon the heavy sound for just one song.  They haven’t.  It rocks, and once again showcases a wonderfully powerful band and a vocalist who can somehow fight through it all and come out on top.

Imago is the album the band always promised to deliver.  It may lack the punch of previous releases, but the songs here deserve to be heard- there’s plenty on offer here to please longtime fans and earn the band many, many more.  Hopefully these will include the one hundred and forty seven people who didn’t buy the album last week and kept it from going all the way to number one in Australia!

To access FasterLouder’s full coverage on the Butterfly Effect click here