French metallers Stengah return with a brand-new EP titled Downward Mechanic. Out via Mascot Records, the EP expands on the band’s well-received SOMA SEMA debut album (the songs having been written during the same sessions), acting as a coda to the themes of that record. However, while album and EP are related, the EP has its own unique qualities, and the five tracks here are sequenced so as to have their own unique flow, from the strident The Earth Awakes through to the expansive finale of Inner Space. With a theme of reclaiming humanity from the increasingly isolated, mechanistic life we have started to lead, there is hope within these five pieces, and the increasingly melodic elements found in Nicholas Queste’s vocals neatly echo the sentiment.
Given the title of The Earth Awakes, the opening track of this five-track EP wastes no time in announcing its presence. However, for all the crushing weight the band deploy, and there are elements of Gojira on display here, Stengah have a strong grasp of dynamic, edging into darkly psychedelic territory as they slow the pace to add in spoken word passages, which echo in the void. It is an immense opening track and a reminder that Stengah’s appeal lies at least as much in their ability to stretch their songs out into other realms as it does in raw, bludgeoning power. As a case in point, Reign Of An Apocryph starts out in post rock territory, all reverb-drenched riffs and melodic vocals, before suddenly shifting into complex tech-metal territory. With bassist Benoit Creteur once again showcasing a rare ability to carve out basslines that probe and infiltrate the dense guitars of Maxime Delassus and Alex Orta, the band’s musicianship impresses, and it’s hard to believe Stengah manage to pack so much into a song that comfortably remains beneath the five-minute mark. The sub-two-minute Resurface provides a brief moment of calm, with picked acoustic guitar and a surprisingly melodic vocal from Nicholas. A strange piece, it’s let down by an inconsistent mix that places the vocal too far forward, where a more ethereal approach would have served better. It’s soon swept away, however, by the bruising Sheltered Within, which slithers between a darkly metallic groove and a more dynamic, alternative rock approach in the layered vocals. Final track Inner Space is the EP’s longest piece, and the band use the extended run time to explore a range of emotions and styles, with Nicholas offering one of his most varied and impressive vocals in the process. With the band once again allowing elements of post-metal to edge into the mix, it’s a mesmerising last word on the sequence begun with SOMA SEMA and it leaves the band free to expand further on their sound in the future.
A short, well-paced EP, created with the same attention to detail that was evident in SOMA SEMA, Downward Mechanic showcases Stengah’s continued desire to probe the limits of their metallic sound. The results are impressive, with tracks like The Earth Awakes and Inner Space particularly strong, the latter ending in such a way as to feed directly back into the opening track, giving the EP a cyclical feel. Closing the book on SOMA SEMA while pointing to potential future departures, Downward Mechanic is a must for fans of the band, and well worth exploring for anyone with a penchant for forward-thinking metal. 8/10
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