| UNFD/Rise Records, March 24, 2017 |
Tracklist
8. Fade
9. Render
10. Veridian
A little over a year ago, the Australian progressive metal band Northlane released the dark and experimental project Alien, which became my favorite album of 2019. Part of understanding Alien involves taking a look back at Mesmer, the band's 2017 album that preceded it. Mesmer was released as a "surprise" full-length on March 24, 2017 with no foreshadowing of its release. A major step up in quality from Node, this project marked Marcus Bridge's second album as frontman. Mesmer was not only an excellent album in its own right, it showed glimpses of what was to come next for Northlane.
The eleven tracks of Mesmer maintain an atmospheric, spacey overtone at some point or another. Aggressive riffs from Jon Deiley and drop-tuned basslines from Alex Milovic set a heavy backdrop that is balanced out with atmospheric vocals and electronics. Compared with Node, the overall presentation is more cohesive, as the writing and structure builds around Marcus Bridge's vocal skill rather than simply integrating his voice into the band's previous sound. Showcasing his beautiful vocal delivery, tracks like "Colourwave", "Zero-One" and "Savage" float in and out and emphasize melody. The catchiest song "Heartmachine" recalls Periphery with an infectious djent riff and vocal melody. "Intuition", the heaviest and angriest track, follows as a strong counterpoint. Northlane show that dynamics are a clear strength. Overall, the pacing and structure of Mesmer is excellent. This includes "Veridian", the song I consider the weakest of the bunch.
While I consider Alien to be Northlane's opus in terms of concept, structure and lyricism, Mesmer shows great strength in the songwriting department as well. The music and writing work in sync - the subject matter reflects the sound of these songs. A key example of this is album highlight "Savage" which is about space exploration and opens with some otherworldly sounding production. On Mesmer, rhythm guitarist Josh Smith wrote most of the lyrics, while two tracks were written by Marcus Bridge. While the songs are about specific situations, they vary in subject matter. Opener "Citizen" is about surveillance and refers to the CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The final track "Paragon" is a tribute to Architects guitarist Tom Searle, who died from cancer in 2016. Other tracks deal with personal issues such as "Colourwave", which Josh wrote about "a really dark time in my life" and "Heartmachine", which is about a former girlfriend of Marcus and the fallout they both experienced. However, none of these songs feel out of place here. "Fade" which mentions Marcus' father's death. This was the first Northlane song to discuss his violent and troubled father, but was a subject that would be discussed more in-depth on Alien. And like on Alien, the music of one song often flows right into the next track. So while these songs may be discussing different topics, the album maintains a cohesion and unity throughout its runtime. The production, which is neither raw nor polished, is also consistent. While overall it could be sharper and clearer, it gets the job done.
Northlane is a band of two different eras. Their early material with Adrian had a distinct sound that other artists would follow after and be influenced by (Invent Animate's Stillworld album is a good example). With the arrival of Marcus they again found a niche, emphasing atmosphere and his vocal strengths. Through it all, Northlane is a band that never stops moving forward, always trying something new while keeping the quality high. Mesmer scores a 9.5/10 rating.
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