11 AS IN ADVERSARIES – “The Full Intrepid Experience of Light” Review

Full-length, Aeternitas Tenebrarum Music Foundation
November 22, 2010

What an interesting band. The name is interesting and so is the music. 11 as in Adversaries define themselves as Metal/Rock/Psychedelic. I see them more as Hardcore, though progressive. Normally I am not a fan of this but I must say I enjoyed this release a lot. I saw on their facebook page they were influenced by heavy prog group The Mars Volta as well as Mastodon and it really shows in their music. These influences make a much more artistically credible act than your typical “–core” band.

The Full Intrepid Experience of Light begins with its eponymous track. Right off the bat we are introduced to dissonant guitar riffs and electrical feedback that feel like they fit in a psychological horror film. The track then picks up to mid tempo yet technically sound notation and vocals. I will say my one major gripe with the album is the singing gets on my nerves. I’m not against clean vocals because “it’s not true” or any of that bullshit, but this instance has very whiney and stagnant singing, that isn’t bad at first but gets a bit dreary after a while. Getting over this, this is a very nice song that fuses the styles of the two bands I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

“Agitation in the Glorious Theme” follows up with some nice psychedelic strumming along with a funky riff. This song makes it clear that 11AIA is a metal/rock crossover that is worth listening too. It has a rather mainstream feel to it, but still it gives us avant-garde elements. Despite a very different sound I’d like to compare it to the works of Mike Patton, just on the basis of that description.

“The Night Scalp Challenger” saves us a little from the monotonous vocals with screaming, but the clean portions are still present. Here we have a very dark but jazzy tune that makes me think of metal burlesque show if there were such a thing. The progression from the previous tracks is slow, but we’re starting to really get variety in the album, for the follow up track is very experimental.

The fifth piece is merely an interlude with the closing track seeming to reflect the earlier parts of the album. Overall, this is a pretty good release and probably is one of the albums that will draw casual fans in but also impress some of the more open minded metal heads. The vocals don’t entirely ruin it for me, but I find that I can only take the album listening to parts at a time because despite the variety instrumentally, the one dimensional singing almost negates that into tediousness. I will recommend this album nonetheless.

(7/10) 
Reviewed by; Matt Coughlin