Album Review: Memento Mori

Mathew and I go way back. I remember seeing his band Decortica when our band was around and I was just gobsmacked. The raw intensity. The energy. The sound. It was all there.

Over time, Mathew has explored different versions of this sound that I would consider to be progressive rock, metal and emotive. I cannot stress enough that if you like Radiohead, you would probably love this too. Just do not expect to hear something like Creep. Expect something more like what you hear from their later stuff.

With that said and out of the way, Mathew doesn’t muck around. His latest release Memento Mori is actually the sum of all parts, bringing together his EPs into one album with three brand new opening tracks featuring Corey Friedlander on the opening track who is well known as a monster behind the kit and perfectly performs on the brand new track.

Coming in with a fast snappy sound from the start, it then jumps into that track mark heavy, slow, big emotive sound driven by big riffs and stacked harmonies all over the place. I actually remember learning one of Mathew’s songs just to see how he does it. It’s clever and must be time consuming which is why an album like this is best heard while driving, sitting at your desk, or rather…..just not being distracted. Corey and Mathew weave together a powerful piece of music with some truly incredible drum moments showcasing how these two complement each other.

As for the rest of the album, H.Walker returns to drums. This time for the three songs they worked with Tyler Burke Tantin at the lab. Tyler’s ability to perfectly capture what we all heard back in the day is all here.

Antimasque is full of incredibly tasty guitar lines and movements that reminded me a lot of some of the mid era Silverchair era. Mathew likes to move around all sorts of keys but yet somehow keeps us grounded. The guitar solo in this song is wonderful. Simplistic but sets up the ending of the song. The bass drives through at times, synth lines and other instruments bring to mind artists like Muse and Placebo. And yet Mathew’s voice has a quality about it that really drives home every song’s idea and feeling. Landscapes painted by controlled chaos. It’s fantastic.

Following on after is the powerful opening of Sanguinivory which is a brooding track that delivers one of the biggest riffs of the album. These guys together have created a sound that has to be heard on a good set of speakers cranked up. The mixing is great. Spacious and full.

With these three songs being connected with the other two releases that have now been remastered, what you have here is a body of work over almost two decades in my mind. You can hear all the work Mathew had done with Dave Holmes in a new way.

Everything Mathew has done with his other work has culminated into this. A gigantic body of work full of interesting riffs and ideas that are fun to listen to, but also must be so fun to play live. Hearing songs like Oblivion, Multitudes and Sympathy again after all this time is refreshing. It reminds me of what I liked about the previous releases. I would spend time with them and get to learn the details of each track. This is prog rock remember. It is about exploration. In this case, it’s done in a heavy way and I love it.

Overall, I enjoyed hearing the new tracks and performances on Memento Mori while also revisiting an old friend with remastered tracks. Big ups to everyone involved in this project.