The Contortionist Are Back With “Language I: Intuition”

July 15th, 2014

Brian Leak

I’ll be the first to admit that I got nervous for The Contortionist when Jonathan Carpenter left his vocal duties behind for Mike Lessard of Last Chance To Reason. Sure, both bands had a similar style overall but Carpenter’s vocals just worked so seamlessly with The Contortionist’s sound. I kept an open mind, though, as I always enjoyed what Lessard did with LCTR. Here we are over a year from the announcement of Carpenter’s departure and we’ve been graced with the first single from The Contortionist’s first album with Lessard at the helm.

“Language I: Intuition” doesn’t even touch the heaviness of the Exoplanet-era which on one hand is incredibly disappointing, but on the other, the overall spacial, ethereal sound of The Contortionist is still wholly intact, which is great. This may be the band’s most ambient song to date and while I do hope to see some of that brutality from the band’s earlier works, I for one am anxiously awaiting to see what else Language has in store. Lessard has certainly done the band justice by adding his take on what The Contortionist is and regardless of the amount of heavy on their new album, “Language I: Intuition” is a hell of a starter–even if it does take a little while to pick up the pace.

You can stream the lead single below and pre-order Language here or here before its September 16 release via eOne Music / Good Fight Music.