Rebranding himself simply as Changeling for this eponymously titled release, German guitar maestro Tom Geldschläger (aka Tom Fountainhead) is one of those musicians who never seems to stop working. Whether it’s projects like Despotic, NYN or My Atomic Majesty, his studio engineering and session musician work, or as a music clinician, author, and speaker on music production and musicians’ mental health, Geldschläger always keeps a full diary.
For his latest progressive death metal adventure, the Berlin-based purveyor of the fretless guitar signed with Season of Mist and hired a core band of musicians to help realise his vision. And then enlisted a vast number of others to help realise it even further.
Featuring former Fear Factory drummer Mike Heller, British bassist (fretless, of course) Arran McSporran (Vipassi, Virvum) and lead vocalist/lyricist Florian Magnus Maier (aka Morean of (Alkaloid and Dark Fortress), Changeling also includes a host of guest performances from other specialists in their field. From former Death and King Diamond guitarist Andy Laroque to fellow axemen Jason Gobel (Cynic) and Bill Hudson (Trans Siberian Orchestra) to violinist Ally Storch (Subway to Sally) plus a simply mind-boggling abundance of singers and classical musicians, if you want your death metal as complicated and aurally overwhelming as possible then you’ve come to the right place.
Opening with the nimble-fingered (non)fretboard dexterity of “Introject,” the sixty-minute concept album smashes headlong into the off-kilter blur of “Instant Results” with its Dimmu Borgir-esque vocal refrain and Steve Vai meets Alex Skolnick meets an octopus with a plectrum guitar solos. The pacey “Falling in Circles” falls between Cynic and latter day Death before settling into a punishing groove full of gravelly vocals and catchy hooks before the moody crunch of “World? What World” ups the ante with its complex time changes, sudden left turns, and orchestral backing.
Piano piece “Metanoia Interlude” is swiftly replaced by the elaborate title track, where tribal rhythms merge with huge slabs of atonal brutality and jazzy four-string work that sounds like Imperial Triumphant and Gorguts taking a holiday with Sepultura. “Abyss” arrives with thunderous diving chords that sound like they’re plummeting to the ocean depths as visceral roars sit alongside jazzy basslines and more mesmerizing soloing. After the breathing space of “Cathexis Interlude,” the mind-bending “Abdication” hits you with a plethora of different moods and textures, the song arguably the finest, most insanity-inducing example of progressive metal on the album.
With one exception. Curtain closer “Anathema” is fifteen minutes of pure science fiction, cosmic wizardry. Not one single note known to man remains unplayed in this bewildering, serpentine manifestation of everything in the universe ever. Don’t even try getting your head around this one in one sitting. It’ll just explode into tiny micro-universes forever.
Continually metamorphosing and evolving, if you ever feel on solid ground with Changeling, even for a moment, then that’s the time to hold on. Imagine going into deep space with Devin Townsend, Steve Vai, the collective works of every experimental prog rock/metal artist known to man, plus a metric fuckton of mind-altering drugs and you still won’t have a clear idea of just how utterly confounding, bewildering and basically batshit mental this record actually is.
Buy the album here:
https://orcd.co/changelingchangeling
8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK
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