Green Metal like Black Metal … hammered dulcimers instead of guitars … gruff, growling vocals as well as clean singing, plus choral voices and symphonic passages. Yes, Botanist are “plant based”. Yes, Paleobotany (Prophecy Productions) is heavy and proggy. And yes, it’s very different, in a good way. 

The sound leans towards the avant-garde and the persistently horticultural concepts seem decidedly left-field. It’s all very niche (is there a tighter niche than Green Metal?) but expertly done, assured, and varied, with a commitment and seriousness that can pull you in.

Vocalist, composer, lyricist, and multi-instrumentalist Otrebor created Botanist while living in San Francisco in 2009, invites you once again into a verdant realm, with their twelfth full-length release (either solo or with a band line-up). 

Botanist’s latest concept takes us back to the time of the dinosaurs and the Chicxulub meteorite, with the traditionally folky, stringed dulcimers fitted with electric pickups and enhanced by amplification, distortion, and digital manipulation. But the most thunderous and impressive element of the album is the all-around drumming performance, particularly on tracks like “Magnolia” and “Strychnos Electri.” 

Otrebor has recruited vocalist Mar, with Daturus on drums, and Tony Thomas back on bass.

There are bits that sound like Genesis (The Return Of The Giant Hogweed, anyone?) and echoes of Pink Floyd with titles such as “The Impact That Built The Amazon” and “When Forests Turn To Coal” revealing the epic, grandiose nature of a lot of the music. 

It’s a complex sound, challenging sonically as well as in concept, but there is a definite sense that the Botanist guys know what they are about. In the moments when the vocals soar above the battering of the drums and keyboards adding their own tones to the atmosphere, Botanist reaches for the operatic and symphonic and the whole thing goes up a notch.

There is, at times, a sense of sheer musical frenzy, but also a poised, careful, sublime element of control. 

“Wollemia Nobilis” is an almost three-minute cacophony, reflecting the more avant-garde nature of the band. “The Impact That Built The Amazon” is surprisingly sinuous and seductive. The drums are absent from this song but it still proves to be nicely percussive and a real stand-out. 

Drums are back for “Sigillaria”, one of the more easily accessible tracks; full of hooks and melody, punctuated again by the skins, the splashes, and fills. The dulcimers are at their most “guitary” on this one, if that makes any sense. 

“Dioon” is another of the more recognisably “metal” tracks, while “Royal Protea” ends things on a relatively upbeat note.

Ancient and shamanic, with throat singing thrown in, but also quite modern, even sci-fi, Paleobotany is rich in detail, and emotion.

I would try to expand here on my own grasp of plant-based knowledge but would probably just make a hash of it.

Buy the album here:
http://lnk.spkr.media/botanist-paleobotany

7 / 10|
CALLUM REID