FIVE STAR PRISON CELL: Matriarch

Produced by Forester Savell

Released: June 4 2010

Three albums in and Five Star Prison Cell prove once and for all that they are undisputed masters of time-signature defying technical metal. Matriarch is a true tour de force for the Melbourne quartet that sees them expanding their artistic vision and developing a sound that is firmly their own.

"I Curse This Vessel" kicks off the album in an almost subdued fashion for a band of this nature, but make no mistake. Before the first minute is out Adam Glynn has already lurched from a croon to a roar to an explosion of hard rhyming to a roar again and Marek Holain had worked his way through at least a half dozen riffs before the end. Then after about ten seconds of what is almost classic hardcore, "Book of the New Sun" absolutely erupts into something close to grind and the pace drops only slightly in the riff-storm that is "Empire Made Flesh". With "Swarm", Five Star shows their true versatility as they deliver a track that begins, at least by their usual standards, in an almost conventional and catchy fashion, highlighting Glynn's sophisticated lyrics and the band's genuine songwriting clout even as the last two minutes descends into a madness that eventually surrenders to the insanity of "Modus Operandi" with Marc Whitworth's whirling drum assault and a swirl of death threats and sinister laughter.

On "Airsharks" the band breaks out into a constantly shifting miasma of tempo-changes and stop-start riffs that ends with a long outro of white noise and what sounds like foreign radio chatter. It's a nice (but perhaps slightly over-long) segue into the delicate ambience of "Paramountain" with its Greek and Farsi lyrics delivered in a haunting whisper by Captains vocalist Arezo Khanjani. "Loss of Gravitas" pulls the listener back from the verge of trance with sledgehammer-like sludge and an array of multi-tracked vocal onslaughts from Glynn. "Forlorn" is a loose jam with a jazz feel that highlights Cam McDonald's bass playing and some classy percussion from Whitworth. It acts as a neat bridge between the Bungle-like "Buttercup" and the controlled chaos of "Dance of Shiva". Album closer "Lamia" with its questionably ironic lyrics is a veritable blur of moods and colours, compressing their entire eouvre into four minutes of mayhem; I've seen this song performed live where it proves both confounding and devastating and it certainly ends Matriarch on precisely the right note.

Matriarch is a portrait of a fiercely original band that is far ahead of the field and this is clearly at the front of the race for best Australian metal release of this year.

1. I Curse This Vessel
2. Book of the New Sun
3. Empire Made Flesh
4. Swarm
5. Modus Operandi
6. Airsharks
7. Paramountain
8. Loss of Gravitas
9. Buttercup
10. Forlorn
11. Dance of Shiva
12. Lamia

Rating: 98%