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Dysrhythmia > Barriers and Passages > Reviews
Dysrhythmia - Barriers and Passages

Dysrhythmia - Barriers And Passages - 70%

ConorFynes, September 11th, 2011

When it comes to progressive metal, there is usually no shortage of talent and technical skill, but few bands manage to harness their abilities and make something fresh with it. All too often, I hear yet another Dream Theater clone, or band that's riding on the glory of Symphony X... you get the picture. Then, of course, there's a band like Dysrhythmia to make a twist on metal that is much less common; this is a band from Philadelphia that was brought to my attention by the membership of bassist Colin Marston, who has already impressed me with his work with Behold... The Arctopus and atmospheric black metal act Krallice. With this precedent for eclectic style and crazy antics, it could be difficult to expect something in particular from this band Dysrhythmia, besides that I knew this would be something a little left-of-centre. True enough, the band's fourth album 'Barriers And Passages' is an incredibly quirky piece of instrumental prog metal. While dissonance and sporadic playing isn't anything new to metal, there are few bands who make it sound as fun as Dysrhythmia.

The music on 'Barriers And Passages' is entirely instrumental, and only three instruments at that; the guitar, bass, and drums. For a power trio, Dysrhythmia is able to get quite alot of sound going on. In a way, this band reminds me greatly of what Voivod did, particularly on their 'Nothingface' record; higher register guitar riffs , strange chords, and a heavy bass presence to fill out the sound. The big difference here is that Dysrhythmia keeps up the technicality up a fair notch; the music never tries to be particularly heavy, but it is indeed challenging, and while I never felt that the album as a whole had some in-depth hidden meaning or message to it, it may take a couple of listens to start making sense of the sound here. Dysrhythmia has made little attempt here to create catchy melodies or things for novice listeners to grasp onto, although there is a nice hook on 'Seal-Breaker Void' that sticks with me. In a way, I would have liked to hear some more memorable licks and riffs here instead of the unrelenting dissonant quirk that runs throughout 'Barriers', but I wonder if the band would have managed to maintain the pace of the album if they had melody to focus on as well.

While I may be driven to label this as an 'avant-metal' release, there is alot of post-rock here. In other words, while the music focuses primarily on wowing the listener with dissonant bass grooves and atypical guitar work, there are more harmonious layers of atmosphere that create a greater sonic range. This works really nicely for the music, and helps the performance become less dry. I would have maybe liked a little more cohesion in the album- as it does feel a little thrown together and ends abruptly- and a little more variety in what Dysrhythmia does here would have been nice, even if the album is only a brief thirty five minutes long. In any case, 'Barriers And Passages' is a very good album for tech metal, and a sign to me that heavy metal still has a ways to go before every possible sound is exhausted.

Unsettling Instrumental Music. - 71%

erickg13, May 29th, 2007

“Barriers and Passages” represents Dysrhythmia’s most unnervingly random and complex instrumental offering yet. The music found on “Barriers and Passages” are intriguingly complex, providing for an interesting listening experience, while also being random and uneasy.

What makes this such an uneasy listening experience? Well, for starters, there is the ever changing and always off-kilter tone. This makes the listener uncomfortable because when you are expecting a certain note, they change it up and will go in the opposite direction. Another reason for the uneasy nature of this album is the lack of a consistent melody. The human ear naturally wants to hear melody, and in this piece, there is none.

However, there is no denying the talent of the respective instrumentalists. And while talented, there is just too much going on here to really grasp how good they are.

There are no traditional songs to be found on “Barriers and Passages”, and at just over 35 minutes, the music is best digested as a singular piece. You must listen to this all the way through to really ‘get it’, you may find that you like it, you may find that you don’t, but either way, you must listen to it as a piece.

Overall, Dysrhythmia’s “Barriers and Passages” is a uneasy listening experience, and is recommended to only those who don’t mind feeling uneasy, uncomfortable and tense. This isn’t horrid music, it’s just unnerving.

Actually progressive, but more rockish than metal - 93%

Burning_Season, December 27th, 2006

First off, i'd like to say this is an excellent album. That being said, this is not the most metal of albums. It is actually progressive, as opposed to thousands upon thousands of so-called "Progressive Metal" bands. Progressive is an adjective, not a genre. A progressive band expands the musical genre in which they play, technically speaking or otherwise. It does not just mean playing generic heavy metal riffs for 10 minutes straight, although some bands do that well, surprisingly (and I love long songs, so no bias there). The bass player in this band, Colin Marston, is a genius musically speaking. He has a very good progressive (and they are progressive) metal band called Behold...The Arctopus in which he plays a Warr Guitar, a guitar played entirely with fret tapping. He also has a sound collage project called Infidel?/Castro!, made using a variety of electronic instruments, as well as incorporating more extreme metal oriented elements. In this band, however, Colin Marston has taken a more post-rock oriented direction, resulting in more use of ambience, jazz/fusion elements, and more experimenting in the kinds of sounds instruments can produce. Quite technical regardless.

Songwriting on this album definitley takes a cue from ambient music, there are more than a few ambient sections, repeating a section to create an interesting soundscape based on the texture and dynamics of the music. Songwriting in songs are more themed than narrative or verse-chorus. This means that songs are generally built around one riff, that one being the theme, which will repeat a few times, alternating with other riffs throughout the song to create an architecture of song built around the pillar of the theme riff. The production of the album is also very good too, a very spacious and clean sound which suits the music. Excellent production and songwriting,


The guitars on this album are not the typical guitars one would hear in most metal bands. Alot of high register chords are used, as well as a fair amount of dissonance which is more in a metal vein, but a good amount of which is done in a free jazz sense("An Alleyway To Comprehension", for example). Echo and reverb are placed on the guitars in many song sections to create an interesting background ambience, which certainly adds to the music. Riffs used chords and leads extensively. Tremolo is not used very much with the guitars, more with chords than with single notes. Feedback is also used in a surprisingly melodic sense, as in the outro to "Seal/Breaker/Void". Excellent guitar work.

The bass....OH GOD!!! Not only is it audible, it plays a leading role in the music! Really though the bass player is excellent. There are a wide variety of bass techniques used. Slapping and popping to name a few. The bass playing is very fast and technical, not simply following the guitars or even providing counterpoint to them (as they do quite a bit on this album actually). The bass can actually be heard to lead the songs in more than a few places. In fact, there is even an ambient bass track, "Luminous". Using the sustain and echo of the bass notes, an excellent ambient song is created. Very good atmosphere, more of a meditative track, with a truly beautiful feel. Great bass.

Drums are definitely unique. They take a very very large cue from jazz, and they are rarely straightforward. They are complex, in some cases following the bass and guitar with beats for every note played. Alot of snare/bass combinations with various cymbals. Not an insane amount of double kick drumming at all. but despite that, the drum tend to come out with rather interesting patterns. Very good and technical drumming.

There are no vocals on this album at all, in fact the band is an instrumental one. I could not see vocals particularily suiting this album, as they would detract from some of the ambience.

Excellent album. Good for fans of technical/progressive metal, progressive rock, and post-rock. I reccomend this album for all fans of complex music.