The Omnific with their dual bassists are among the best progressive metal Australia has to offer, having toured with the likes of Between The Buried & Me, Ne Obliviscaris, and Intervals. It stands to reason, then, that the equally instrumental solo project of bassist Toby Peterson-Stewart is also worth a listen. Going by the success of intricate, guitar-driven instrumental solo projects in recent years (Jason Richardson, Devin Townsend, Plini, Lee McKinney to name a few), the answer to that would look to be yes.
Opener “D.H.D.”, aptly standing for ‘dumb heavy djent’ after a then-throwaway clip from the bassist’s YouTube channel in 2021, wastes no time in showing what Break A Leg is all about: thick basslines, juicy polyrhythms, and glorious atmosphere offered by the spacious mix. Digitized keys dotted throughout offer an intoxicating texture, leaving the song feeling like a heavy guitar-driven, pedal-effected interpretation of a Blocking the Sky-era Approaching Nirvana track.
“Endless” is perhaps the most complete track of the three, sporting contributory bass from Jacob Umansky of technical metal forerunners Intervals and The Faceless. Their previous collaboration (The Omnific’s “Final Tree”) had only a drop of the energy and character which oozes from this song. As to be expected from the Dingwall-rocking pair, “Endless” slips between time signatures, with the track continually evolving, including to some truly standout selective picking from Umansky at the minute mark. In all, it’s technical and ambitious without ever losing sight of its melody. Percussion courtesy of Intervals’ Nathan Bulla really shines through, with lovely fills and crisp hi-hats glorious complimenting the midpoint chugs and really making the track pop.
The titular closer rounds out the EP nicely, backed by crushing percussion and navigating from the pretty, ambient guitar passages which have long been on one of my favourite hallmarks of progressive metal to djent groove and back. The mid-track break which clearly divides “Break A Leg” in two parts is simple but special. There is somehow something entrancing about the delicate clean tone and an essence of vocal harmony poking out between the notes of the rumbling, metronomic bassline.
Break A Leg retains all the bouncy basswork that makes The Omnific such a treat, whilst honing in on the djent and supplementing those juicy, downtuned rhythms with a smattering of additional textures, such as the more electronic soundscape of “D.H.D.” All three tracks have a strong and unique identity, which is something that many instrumental bands suffer with. The combination of swagger and technicality makes it, for the moment, this year’s approximation of 2022’s Polyphia and Unprocessed releases. Whilst the drums across the record are evidently programmed, the production as a whole does a fantastic job of balancing out the low-end with ambience and the cleaner guitarlines to perverse top-end clarity. It’s never overly muddy, whilst also managing to rumble like an engine during the aforementioned break of “Break A Leg”.
Ultimately, if you’re not already a fan of progressive metal or djent, Break A Leg isn’t going to convert you. However, it is undoubtedly a record that manages to pack in a ton of ideas whilst remaining free-flowing and accessible (relative speaking for the genre). The market for solo progressive instrumentals is a saturated one, yet one which continuously hungers for more, and so Toby could have easily settled upon throwing together a number of palm-muted polyrhythms and called it a day. Instead, Break A Leg is an impressive array of sounds which keeps the soundscape continually evolving throughout its admittedly short fifteen-minute runtime. Whilst nominally marketed as a bass-centric project, it was in fact all the little ambience and ancillary details which kept me coming back for more. It remains to be seen if future releases can take that sound to the next level.
Break A Leg releases tomorrow, May 19th, and you can pre-save it here.
8/10