Cleric is one of the most unique and brilliant modern metal bands around, a fact the group cemented forever with their rightly revered 2010 debut album, Regressions. I still listen to that record a lot even now and consider it to be a classic and an essential metal album of the current era. So believe me when I say I feel that same way about Retrocausal. This is our generation’s Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3 type of band, so don’t let Retrocausal pass you by. We’ve got an early stream of Retrocausal for you below ahead of its official release this Friday, December 8th through the always excellent Web Of Mimicry Records.
I particularly enjoy Web Of Mimicry's label owner Trey Spruance's (Secret Chiefs 3/formerly in Mr. Bungle) quote about Cleric put forth in the press materials for Retrocausal which offers another lens through which to view their genre-defying style of metal: "When we here at Web of Mimicry ran across Cleric's music it almost seemed as if some kind of prophecy was being fulfilled. The music registered in our minds as a kind of missing link, like an inevitable stage in metal-oriented music that has needed to happen for a long time now." Guest spots from scene legends like Krallice's Mick Barr, ex-Estradasphere's Timba Harris on violin, and noted jazz composer John Zorn spazzing out on the album closer on saxophone should tell you everything you need to know about the quality of the music here being at a high enough level that musicians that great wanted to be on it. That, and one of the core members here is none other than Matt Hollenberg, the brilliant guitarist behind this year's John Frum record, to give a bit more background information on how unorthodox and warped the music on Retrocausal is. Except the musical style here is less death metal a la John Frum and more in line with Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3 at their most ambitious and film-score like with a similar penchant for multi-genre strangely blended madness. Strained through a web of metal influences ranging from Dillinger Escape Plan, Fantomas, Meshuggah, Botch, and more.
Seeing as I already reviewed the album at NoCleanSinging, I’m going to let the music do the bulk of the talking after making one final point next. But feel free to click the hyperlink above to read the full review and learn more about the band and their un-categorizable brand of music. To briefly summarize one of the most insane and epic metal albums I’ve ever heard, on Retrocausal, Cleric has once again re-imagined and re-formulated a new synthesis and form of metal in its own image. And the result is flabbergasting musical brilliance that is endlessly scintillating throughout each and every infinitely dense song on Retrocausal. If you dig what you’re hearing below, digital pre-orders are up at the Cleric Bandcamp Page, and physical copy orders can be placed through the website for Web of Mimicry Records. Be sure to follow Cleric over on their Facebook page as well.
