Relentless Pursuit – Mechanisms Of Destruction
Relentless Pursuit – Mechanisms Of Destruction – Album Review
Okay…I feel like I can do this. Let’s see if I’m right. If you read through my last review on one of the lead-singles from Mechanisms Of Destruction last week, you wouldn’t blame me for bracing myself a bit.
Anyhow. New day, new me, as they say. When I pushed play on the finished album and “Fortress” began, I felt like there was a much better chance I could get this lineup of tunes without feeling too queasy this time around. That opening melody for instance…piano led…it’s great! I mean, heck – I’d have taken a whole song built around that downtrodden vibe, but of course I’m familiar enough with Relentless Pursuit to know things are gonna change drastically as I continue to listen. Obviously in that regard, “Fortress” doesn’t disappoint – it’s only about seventy seconds or so into this opening track before things begin to morph and change. At which point, I feel like that was welcome to me as well – I was kind of torn on the singing beforehand…Matthew Konradt proves he’s got a decent voice that can certainly carry a tune, but structurally and melodically it seemed a bit scattered in terms of the idea guiding the vocals. So when the drums come in to signal the switch, and the raw power invades this song to fuel the fire of its intensity to follow, I was all for it. I’d go as far as to say that’s still one of my favorite moments on the whole record after having a listen…you can feel the menace in the air, and it ain’t long at all before Relentless Pursuit begins to gnash its teeth and get all kinds of gnarly. Listen to clever moments in production like around the 2:50 mark…and you’ll know that the work has been put in here. From what I understand, Mechanisms Of Destruction is a concept album…one that largely deals with artificial intelligence, religion, and I suppose you could say our own mortality/purpose as well. The battle between the good that can potentially exist, versus a perceived evil of sorts. At least that’s what I’ve been getting out of it. As with all concept albums, it’s always so much more clear to the folks that create’em than it’ll ever be to listeners out there…but I’d surmise I’m somewhat close in my assessment. “Fortress” gets the conversation started and has its moments. Like, I love the way the music smooths out for a bit and gets mellow as this track passes the four minute mark. Vocally, Konradt’s got a ways to go in my opinion – he gets to a lot of the right spots eventually, but it takes a lot of wandering to get there, resulting in a bit of unevenness and/or a more indecisive sound that he’s probably not looking for. He’s got the same kind of ears we do as far as I know though…so he can hear what we hear. At that point you have to assume he’s got things where he wants them to be, or he’s not being quite as brutally objective about the vocal additions to his tunes as perhaps he should be. Best advice I’ve got is to remember what you put into a song has to be adding to it…or guaranteed it’s taking something away. Not a bad start though…I’d take a “Fortress” over a “Modified Reconstruction” any day of the week.
I found the concept of “Nirmata” highly interesting right away. Likely for intentional reasons, but also for another that might have not been intended at all. I wanted to know what “Nirmata” meant, so of course I looked it up, and it roughly translates to “the creator” – which is what I’d imagine Konradt is going for. Fun fact though – it’s also a software company based out of San Jose too! I dunno if that part is intentional or not, but it jives really well with an album that’s taking on artificial intelligence I’d say. I don’t think I found any issues at all on “Nirmata” – it’s intense AF and really leans into its gnarliness in that regard, but it’s a really focused cut and it felt like Matthew squeezed everything he could have out of this one. You see folks? Like I always tell ya…I’m just here to call things like I hear’em, that’s it, that’s all. I’d be the first to tell ya that “Nirmata” ain’t what you’d usually find on my own personal playlist, but I can still easily acknowledge that everything about it is going RIGHT. Konradt’s vocals are perfect, the music is powerful, the production is on-point…at the end of the day, that’s all we’re really looking for. If you’re a true fan of the hard stuff, you’ll have no problem at all digging the sonic fury that is “Nirmata.” Love that short instrumental break around the three-minute mark…I might have been tempted to keep that going for a bar or two more just to build up that anticipation a bit, but that’s just a tiny observation – I ain’t complaining about the execution or the ideas you’ll find in this second track on the new record.
“Automated Catastrophe” is neat at the start, because it sounds like it begins with an ending – and how often do I get to write something like that? Fun! Ultimately, you’ve gotta look at an album like this in the same way you’d look at a story…or perhaps more accurately, in the same way that someone would sing a story. So like…where our ears kind of naturally search for hooks, they’re not always going to find them in the places they’d regularly look. In the case of “Automated Catastrophe” or tracks like “Fortress” earlier on, you’re not going to find many tangible hooks in the verses – and it’s in these spots you can hear Matthew’s focus shift more towards saying what he wants to say without compromise. That works well in terms of communicating the overall story, but makes it exponentially harder on the other side of the speakers for the average everyday listener to find something they can hang onto. As far as “Automated Catastrophe” goes, eventually you arrive at the “kill the machine” part with its searing guitar line in the background, and that’s the hook you’ll get. Like it or not, I’d argue that it’s memorable…and that’s usually the main ingredient you’d wanna find in a hook of any kind. Is it universal? Hell no! We’re not talking about that when it comes to this song or the music of Relentless Pursuit at-large really…but I’m confident Konradt is well aware of the fact that his tunes would be appealing to a small slice of the potential audience out there already. He’s doing some genuinely exciting things though…each track has at least a couple. In “Automated Catastrophe,” I really dig that wild sound he’s added in around the 1:35 mark, and I’m equally jazzed about the tone of his guitar in that spot around 2:10 as this third cut begins to make its descent into the brilliant low-key finale after.
“Artificial” asks the question, “why do we refuse to believe in a higher power yet put our faith in Artificial Intelligence?” That’s a great line and a great question if you ask me! I’m a proud non-believer to begin with, and I have zero faith in artificial intelligence…so I’d be the wrong person to ask all-around. Heck – I don’t know that I even believe in REAL intelligence at this point y’all…I’m not so convinced that’s an attribute within human beings for the most part so much as a bit of a unicorn myth in our own potential. “Artificial” is a solid concept built on the shakiest of ground…it’s a reminder/warning about the collision course we’ve created for ourselves…the inevitable existence (think Titanic) versus our ‘progress’ (think iceberg) and how we’ve set up the very system that will shut us down permanently one day. Can’t say I disagree with that. Do I think it’s machines that’ll polish us all off? Honestly, I don’t know – but I would say that we’ve created that potential reality, sure. How it has been sold to us as ‘progress’ or ‘intelligence’ of any kind is nothing short of remarkable marketing…we’re talkin’ seriously blue-ribbon type stuff that should get an award. Somehow we’re being convinced that our impending doom is a great thing for us all…and if that wasn’t so perilously miserable, it’d be nothing other than impressive. “Why do we believe in false dreams?” That questions a bit more simple to answer in my opinion – if we didn’t there’d be a lineup at every bridge to jump off…it’s a bit hard to glean meaning and purpose out of the valley of malls we’ve created and built on the surface of utopia. I’ve got no real issues with this track…it works out better than our future will, am I right? For real though – “Artificial” is pretty solid all the way though – I even dig the way that Konradt sings the chorus for the most part, I love the ‘malfunction’ moment in this song, and the surge to the end was perfect. Did it need that final chorus? I’d probably argue it might have been a bit stronger without it, but I’d understand if Matthew felt like that was one of his better moments on the microphone & wanted to keep that roll going for a bit longer.
Matthew and I have been over the Cookie Monster issue before…and up until “Internal Hesitation,” he’s done an exceptional job of avoiding that sound. Here in the fifth track though, it’s hard to escape hearing the similarities in Konradt’s fiery growl and Sesame Street’s beloved blue muppet. So here’s the thing…I don’t have an issue with growling or screaming or whatever – all that’s fine, even if it’s not what I generally choose to listen to…but I still feel like you’ve gotta dig deep and find some kind of tangible rhythm or flow to make those kinds of vocals worth adding into a song. So like, in the case of “Internal Hesitation,” it seems like Matthew’s latched onto something that could really work at first, before he runs out of music and what he wants to say continues to rumble like a run-on engine in that first verse, spilling out into the open space. It becomes a double-edged sword of sorts…we notice the Cookie Monster element way more because the sound is gone, but the rhythmic pulse of the lyrics also disappears – and both of these things are a bit avoidable if you ask me. What it requires though, is a bit of sharpening the pencil…sometimes what we wanna say doesn’t always fit – and this song is a perfect example of that…but the answer ain’t usually to jam it in there anyway, it’s about rewriting and finding that ability to still say what we want to say, just in a different way is all. Konradt likely sees this issue a lot differently than I do…and I ain’t denying that he’s got something interesting here in “Internal Hesitation” as a result of the choices he’s made…ultimately, I’d say a lot of the paradox in the music of Relentless Pursuit comes down to Konradt determining if he’s making music for himself, or the masses. If it’s intended to be for him, a hobby or whatever to make himself happy and pass the time, there’s no real incentive to change much…but if he’s seriously intending his tunes to reach more ears other than his own, I think he’s got lots of room to find some kind of acceptable compromise for his accessibility. Art is a tough sell to the masses no matter how you slice it, and while there’s a whole lot of growling to be found on the surface here, the further you dig into this record the more you realize deep down it’s very rooted in art. Concept albums always are, and Mechanisms Of Destruction qualifies in that regard.
I think one of the more impressive things about this album is that by the time I got to the instrumental cut, “Malfunction,” I actually felt like I was looking around for Konradt’s voice to come in and scream at me a little more. Is that…hmm…is that like, some kind of Stockholm Syndrome? I’ll have to confront my therapist and ask why I feel the need to be yelled at regularly now. Anyhow – you probably get what I mean…I basically went into “Malfunction” feeling like I would think it was one of the stronger songs in this lineup simply because there wouldn’t be any vocals and that can often appeal more to me in cases like this where we’ve got the growly dude on the mic…but I think I ended up feeling the opposite way. I ended up feeling like “Malfunction” needed another ingredient of some kind to bring out the full scope and strength of its dynamics. Not a bad tune by any stretch of the imagination, and very cinematic when it comes right down to it as well…but yeah…I gotta say, I kinda missed Matthew on the mic here. I do think this song speaks volumes on behalf of what he’s capable of in terms of building soundtracks and soundscapes…so he’s opening up more potential doors of opportunity he could choose to walk through later on down the road if he chooses to. “Malfunction” was alright and it still fits snugly into this lineup of songs well enough…but yeah…I’ll admit, I thought I’d be more attached to this than I was.
Then there’s my personal nemesis…”Modified Reconstruction.” Not gonna do it! Nope! Not again. My guy has already heard everything I’ve got to say about this track and then some, and I don’t have too much to add beyond what I wrote in the previous review on this single – so you can click here to read up on all that. The only thing I can think of adding is a bit of confirmation…I was talking about how we had that single in advance of the entire album, and that of course, more context can be crucial to getting a better understanding of only a mere slice of it. And that’s true here…I think we understand “Modified Reconstruction” better here in the greater scope of the all-encompassing themes and concepts you’ll find on Mechanisms Of Destruction. Does that make me feel less ill when I listen to this song now? No. That’s not at all what I’m saying. I still think Matthew has made some bizarre choices in this track in my personal opinion…but sure, I guess it’s fair to say that “Modified Reconstruction” sounds like it belongs to this lineup of songs overall. It’s never gonna be my favorite track, but it does fit amongst these tunes.
“Reason Beyond All Comprehension” definitely contains some of my favorite lyricism on the album, and I’d argue some of the album’s most highlight moments/ideas as well. There’s a whole lot of me that wishes Matthew had just stuck with the computer-esque vocals that it starts with, but I tell ya, when that Cookie Monster comes a-callin’ he is always willing to accept the charges. Someone get this guy an Oreo and tell him to chill out a bit eh? To his credit, when Konradt wants to light the place up and roar his face off, you can practically feel the air from your speakers…so there’s that. I think he deserves major credit for many other things too when it comes right down to it…like on “Reason Beyond All Comprehension” alone, he’s probably rocking with at least three or four separate approaches to how he chooses to handle the vocals. Say what you wanna about this style or that, or what works or what doesn’t – that’s still a whole lot of effort and it takes serious creative courage to try that many things on the inside of one tune, let alone how many different things he’s tried throughout the course of this whole record. With respect to that, let’s not forget this is a one-man show at the core of it all, and he’s been crushin’ it like a full band the entire time. Konradt is dedicated to what he creates, and he doesn’t skimp on the details…that deserves some love too. So what if we might disagree on whether or not he like, needs to add EVERYTHING into a tune like “Reason Beyond All Comprehension?” Maybe you’re on his side of the argument and are stoked to hear a little bit of everything in the mix! Or maybe you’re on my side and feel like a more narrowly focused track, where in this instance could have been tailored directly to the AI system detecting the virus and all that…could have been more beneficial in terms of separating this song from the rest. Art & music is all about trial & error, and it’s all about testing the limits of what we’re capable of, continuously. Matthew is doing a lot of things, and a lot of demanding things at that…narrowing the scope a little bit could potentially take a bit off of his plate, increase the accessibility of his material overall, and make things a bit easier on both sides of the speakers. Would that be in-line with the goals of Relentless Pursuit’s music though? Only Konradt would know for sure.
Case in-point…he’s absolutely got an idea at the start of “End Wave” that works brilliantly in terms of how the vocals are laid out for us. Could he make the rhythm and flow of it all more easy on himself? Absolutely. Again, it’s about finding that compromise between accessibility and saying what he wants to say. Right now, Konradt ain’t into compromise in that regard…the words are coming through as the first priority, which results in some odd metering at times or a lack of any kind of fluidity in the rhyme scheme…that kind of thing. No one says that you’ve gotta make every second line rhyme with the first – there are no rules here – but it could make things easier for him to sing and easier for his words to be received on the listening end. So he’s making a conscious trade in that regard…and again, only he knows whether or not that lack of compromise is paying off for him artistically. Like, I LOVE the way the opening vocals come out from the lefts to the rights…and I kinda find myself wishing that he’d gone for a bit of a smoother design to pair with it…he’d have something that’d be off the charts awesome if he did. Even without doing that, I’d still put “End Wave” up there with some of the best material you’ll find on this new record from Relentless Pursuit. There are many ways where Konradt could make things easier on himself and on us as well…but he’s choosing the road less traveled instead…so be it. At the end of the day, the only person he needs to satisfy is himself…if anyone else happens to dig what he does, then bonus. When you hear the superhuman amount of effort he puts into each track & how enormous of a task each cut on this record is, you gotta applaud the work he’s accomplished whether you like it or not.
As “Unending Convergence” finishes off the record…I feel like he’s made the right decision to call the game around here. It’s a LOT, let’s be real – listening to Relentless Pursuit is a full-time job, and it’s not music that’s gonna be for everyone…I don’t have any illusions about that, and I don’t think Matthew does either. He makes a very demanding style of in-your-face music that almost dares people to listen and challenges ears in a way that almost seeks to turn them off, if only to discover the select few that would get what he does from start to finish instead. Nothing wrong with that – I’m sure that Konradt has found many people out there that dig what he does already, and I’m just as confident that he’ll find more over the years to come. It’s harder-than-the-hard-stuff in many ways, but every so often, he’ll add in something seriously cool as well, like how “Unending Convergence” has a bit of an orchestral element to it. Again, I find myself tempted to make an argument for him to narrow the scope and not feel the need to add in everything all at once…I feel like that’ll ultimately make a lot of his material have a bit more identity to it track-to-track, as opposed to feeling like we’re listening to ten tunes of a vicious wall of sound that’s one giant entity looking to exterminate our hearing, permanently. It all depends on the goals though y’all…and like I’ve been saying all along, only Konradt knows what those really are. If he’s looking to make the music he enjoys listening to, and he’s doing that, then right on – high five from me. If he’s looking to make music more geared towards a larger audience, there is always something that can be done for any artist or band out there…a career in this business is a series of adjustments. Dude’s got a boatload of talent…to me, I feel like Relentless Pursuit just needs a bit of a narrower focus and someone out there to tell Matthew to rein it in a little bit. While he’s capable of doing it all at once, just because we can doesn’t always mean that we should – you feel me? Refine, adjust, refine some more – that’s the game-plan going forward for this dude and his music if you ask me…Mechanisms Of Destruction is an interesting concept record that’ll definitely hit ya hard on a sonic & sensory level, but also reveals the vast amount of space that still exists for evolution in the art of Relentless Pursuit as well.
Mechanisms Of Destruction arrives this April 30th – make sure to find out more about Relentless Pursuit from the official page at Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61555541150763
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