Momentum

Fixation, At Rest has been spinning in regular rotation for a good chunk of the year. My reactions to it was such that I quickly became neck-deep in a my own flood of descriptive words and adjectives. It became almost pornographic in a sense. So I put it on ice in hopes it would calm me down and render my review more level headed.

For the first month or two, my Fixation, At Rest listening habits were that of a junky. I couldn't get enough and I wanted it all the time. Ever since, its been rare that a week went by without spinning it once or twice.
And here we are. It is only now I'm concluding the review I've written in my head millions of times over for all this time. It is hard to do an ambitious record like this justice, this contender for the year's best album. A record who's enormity intimidated yours truly into holding his tongue for months on end.

Fixation, At Rest is MOMENTUM's third release, albeit their first full length. Ever since the band's inception, the urge to shed genre conventions has grown stronger, reaching its full potential here. In fact, the album being a conceptual piece, its lyrical content and imagery seems to revolve mostly around the need to change, the necessity of moving forward, embrace shifting currents, freedom of thought and aspire something colorful as opposed to gray. In MOMENTUM's world, gray means stagnation and regression. It is to cheat oneself.
The group achieves this and the result is as expressive as modern and extreme metal gets. Therefore, this ode to progression is successful, even though it is not perfect. I could go into great details about they album's multi-layered nature, its depth, ambiguity, brute heaviness and haunting melodies, but I'll try to restrain myself. Just know that it is a grower like few others this year, a gift that keeps on giving. Especially if you enjoy it with good headphones.

As said before, Fixation, At Rest is very proggy in nature; violins, piano, cello, computer generated sounds(manipulation), lengthy numbers and the works. But fear not, because these guys take it into much darker and thunderous realms than say, Dream Theater or other such "professors". Although plenty technical (in a subtle way) it lends itself to vastness not unlike: Edge Of Sanity's Crimson opuses, Devin Townsend's body of work and even more recent Melechesh, rather than in-your-face complexity and technical fireworks. Although these artists have little in common musically or aesthetically, they all have mastered the art of multiple genre manipulation.
This vastness gives way to broad strokes and the album is therefore varied. Some have argued it's too eclectic for its own good but I disagree. The vibes and moods found herein travel wide and far and the band's work seems to have grown in confidence because of that. And even if it threatens to tear the album apart, it miraculously hangs together, like Steven Spielberg's Memphis Bell. This is Fixation's greatest strength. It reels you in and lets you explore. Its dynamic power is hard to ignore.

The production on this thing is stellar. The sound is piercingly modern but underneath it there's a trace of warmth. It sounds huge and the mix flatters every player involved. Despite this triumph, I take issue with its limitations in complementing some of the composition's ebb and flow. It's not a big issue at all, but when you've listened to a record this often, you start missing an odd "feel" here and there. The production, although great in sound, becomes too flat and balanced for it's own good in not lending itself to the albums emotional ups and downs. It is as if it cannot keep up with the transitions found in the music. But chasing the fluctuating trajectory from first song to the last could have been too risky. Like I said, these moments are very few and far between.
The drum sound is fantastic. The cymbals are alive, not compressed and flat. I don't know how the heck they got that bass drum and snare sound. It helps setting the drums apart from anything else going on today.

The only song to trail considerably behind the rest is 'Prosthetic Sea'. Its ambiguity blunts its blade. It sounds like two or three songs rolled in one that refuse to co-exist. The haunting, instantly catchy and relateable 'Holding Back' has already become somewhat of a hit in their homeland. The only snag I find within that fine song is the tad predictable and typical way in which the songs crescendo plays out and is eventually reached. Equally haunting, heavier and more secretive is the fantastic 'Red Silence', which introduces Ragnar Ólafsson (Ask The Slave, Árstíðir) as guest vocalist. But he's more than that. He leads this song with a two-voice performance of which the latter can only be described as an outside-the-box interpretation. To the same effect he's leading the charge in the thrilling and mind-bending 'Inspiration', which tension will have you at the edge of your seat. Brilliant.
Other outstanding numbers include the twisted and satisfying 'As The Skies Break', that will have you headbanging and scratching your head at the same time. It's mournful conclusions fits the lyrics "life's path gives a taste of the future... His hope consists of what might be." But it's 'Conduits Lead' that is the icing on the cake. This is modern metal perfection at its heaviest. It has got everything: variation, excitement, heaviness, darkness, melodies and surprises on every corner. Damn it, if this isn't one of if not the best metal song all year. If you don't like it, we cannot understand one another. As simple as that. You can't really go wrong with an album who's songs range from good to awe-inspiring.

It can be argued that Ragnar Ólafsson over-stayed his welcome on Fixation. Especially since Hörður Ólafsson (lead vocals/bass) has a big enough range and diversity to carry the whole album. One is entitled of this opinion but, what with Ragnar's willingness to pull something ridiculous out of his hat (see Ask The Slave), I think his part is justified in that the thematic nature of the lyrics and the characters they introduce, call for a multitude of voices, even beyond the many that Hörður already wields.
The musicianship and each players performance is first-rate throughout. But it's Kristján Guðmundsson (drums) who deserves the praise to end them all. I don't know from which planet this guy came from but he not only presents the listener with one the best drumming on any metal release this year, but he redefines the role of the snare-drum in extreme metal. His snare work is a solo after solo in its own right. He accentuates every song, gives it flare and distinctive groove with series of carefully constructive bars of ghost-strokes/notes, unlike anything I've heard yet. It's fabulous. Add to that, every song and almost each part that has drums in it, presents something that is unique to him and MOMENTUM's songs alone. The drumming is intricate, imaginative and tasteful.

Fixation, At Rest is not a perfect record but it is one of the most outstanding, thoughtful and stimulating albums you'll get your hands on this year and conceivably the best metal of 2010. What MOMENTUM have created here sounds like nothing else right now. Fixation, At Rest is stunning. It is brilliant.
- Birkir Fjalar - Halifax Collect

On Fixation at Rest Momentum offer more
athmosphere than all of the sky combined along with a dozen LSD tabs
of psychadelia and devastating slabs of wicked heaviness. The tracks
amble and trudge at a slovenly pace whilst enthralling the listener
and immersing him completely in the aural experience. The songs , for
the most part, are long and epic in scope and some sport such
memorable choruses that the listener finds himself humming them well
after the following track starts. The sound production is flawless
and clear, yet massive. The musicianship is, as always, stellar, and
the only negative aspect of the affair is that with the band’s move
away from hyper speed extreme metal, their ace in the hole- the world
classs drummer Kristján- is given less opportunity to show off his
massive chops.

Bogi Bjarnason - The Reykjavik Grapevine

"But it's really when Momentum [8] take the stage and deliver an otherworldly brew of slow-building, heavily distorted melodies and shouted vocals that tonight takes off."
- Alexander Milas, Metal Hammer Magazine #213 January 2011 (Dec 15, 2010)
- Metal Hammer Magazine #213 January 2011

"From Sigur Rós to Sólstafir, Icelandic bands wear their originality lightly, as if breaking new ground and creating unfamiliar sounds were an entry-level requirement rather then a lofty aspiration. Momentum may bear certain similarities to Neurosis, but there is a uniquely unsettling aura of dark abstraction that lurks between the thunderous, snail's-pace riffs and moments of elegiac calm. With the quartet's black metal roots now a dim memory, there is room in the quiet-to-loud crescendo-fests of Holding Back and As the Skies Break for real warmth and melancholy, while on Red Silence they sound like a combination of Gojira's tectonic battery and the desperate beauty of later radiohead. [7] "
- Dom Lawson, Metal Hammer Magazine #213 January 2011 (Dec 15, 2010) - Metal Hammer Magazine #213 January 2011

I was introduced to Icelandic metal band Momentum a few weeks ago thanks to Birkir at Halifax Collect, and their latest full-length, "Fixation, at Rest", has just been released by Molestin Records. Apparently the band started out as a one-man black metal project, but they've obviously come a hell of a long way, and this must be their most progressive outing to date. They're working with quite a wide range of influences: From soft singing and relaxed clean passages with tactful post-rock atmospheres somewhat reminiscent of Radiohead to a Neurosis-esque level of completely crushing heaviness characterized by intense vocal layering over discordant, staccato bursts, monstrous power chords, and subtle layers of additional sound texture. I hate to keep comparing them to other bands (though keep in mind that these are just points of reference), but they remind me of a more aggressive and expansive City of Ships as well. But all of this is spiced up by peculiarly winding little twists and turns filled with somber melodies, not to mention the diversity of all the vocal stylings, so there are a number of elements herein that push the band towards their own individual approach. The songwriting is extremely impressive, too. They obviously pay a lot of attention to transitions, dynamics, and musicianship. There are a number of jaw-droppingly awesome moments where surprisingly excellent singing and lighter fare explode into huge surges of truly moving, high-impact metal. Very much recommended. This is one of those effectively ambitious albums that I would expect to be extremely well-received by all of the bigger metal magazines were the band on a fairly known record label, so I hope the record's somewhat more obscure nature doesn't see it slip by under the radar. Do your part and spread the word if you like what you hear! - Aversionline by Andrew

Chalk it up to geographic isolation, but Icelandic bands really haven’t represented in the worldwide metal scene… until now.

The songs posted at the Bandcamp link that the Icelandic band Momentum sent us are so good that I’ve had them open in a browser tab for a week now… and there’s only two of them! Imagine the intricate, slow, doomy goodness of Cult of Luna or a more focused version of Isis mixed with elephants marching-like Gojira battle stomps of death metal and a progressive bent in the band’s songwriting approach… hard to do, I know, so just go ahead and listen to the two songs Momentum have posted at Bandcamp.

This is the kind doom that I wish was more plentiful in the world; well-produced, sonically rich and intricate, as opposed to raw-for-the-sake-of-raw and slow-for-the-sake-of-slow doom that ends up just being boring instead of powerful. This is powerful… just the right amount of raw and just the right amount of slow, mixed in with plenty of other stuff to keep it interesting.

Momentum’s new album Fixation, At Rest was released on May 14th.

-VN - Metalsucks by Vince Neilstein