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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Momentum - Whetting Occam's Razor

Momentum's debut Whetting Occam's Razor showcases a style of hardcore that has its head in books and heart in the pit as their lyrics are expansive meditations of not only political matters but also matters of existence and the whole goddamn universe. While the music is driving, melodically intertwined hardcore with a concoction of misanthropy and hope, Whetting Occam's Razor is a fulfilling and ambitious work that hits all points of stimulation, both in ideology as well as musicality.

The music itself is a continually moving and heavy force not without similarities to Fall of Efrafa and Plague Mass (the band does contain members of the aforementioned bands). Where comparisons might be easy to make, Momentum doesn't sound exactly like those two, or any others for that matter. The album lends itself to picky listeners, as well as astute observers of "albums as a whole" as tracks like "Emergence" cement your interest with catchy hooks and a steady pulse while ones like "Miopia" are a fiery burst of hardcore that's just way too short as the curve ball that ends it sounds so great and "Masters" is an epic monolith of a track.

As mentioned earlier,the band is entrenched in various niches of science and political action. Much of their lyrics, topics, and even artwork are inspired largely by Carl Sagan. The band explores the expansiveness and possibilities that exist, or potentially could exist, in the universe. Thankfully though, the music doesn't tread this way and get unwavering and spacey in itself. This ends up being a nice match until the track "Void" and its melodramatic and didactic clip/reading that would make me embarrassed if others listened in.With that in mind, I am grateful that the band strays away from being too "heady" or pretentious, instead they play an emotive and thundering brand of music that offers plenty to think about and more to headbang too.

Overall I continue to enjoy Momentum's release and find myself staying up late with it spinning on my turntable and reading the lyrics to match.


Halo of Flies
Dec. 2011

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I really like the band utilized Occam's Razor in an odd way. Instead of dulling it, they make it sharper.

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