Metal4Africa.com » Reviews » The Broken Result – “Recursive”

BAND: The Broken Result
ALBUM: Recursive
RELEASED: 2010
LABEL: Dualine Records

A stark contrast between the darkness within and daylight outside rendered me completely blind!  As I entered ROAR (Observatory, Cape Town), I had to
abandon my ritual of greeting the familiars since the place appeared to be inhabited not by people but rather a host of black silhouettes.  Even the stage seemed only to emanate a dull red glow.  From the other end of the room, lights from bar fridges drew me forward like a moth to flame.  Was ROAR always this dark?  No.  Normally I would arrive by night and my eyes would already be accustomed.  After collecting a glass of water (no liquor was being sold at this all-ages daytime show), my eyes could discern only a little better the difference between shapes of people from the room surrounding us.  I began heading back towards the stage when one of them called my name over the din of thrashing guitars.  Readjusting my trajectory towards the yelling shape, I collided with what turned out the be the merch table.  It was the guys from The Broken Result.  After a little catching up, they offered me a CD from the offending table.  My hip still stung, but I accepted the gift graciously.

Under more fortunate lighting conditions, I found the album art of ‘Recursive’ to be quite striking.  It is done in a very illustrative style (the work of Micheal Gill) and contains a consistent theme of images throughout the 8-page sleeve that seems fitting to the music.  The final design and layout has been expertly delivered by Brendon Barnard.  From an artistic point of view, I particularly like the use of colour throughout as it truly brings out the mood and power of the images.

The listener receives an unexpected greeting in the form of a synth-styled instrumental intro which is fairly lengthy.  Admittedly, I grew a little impatient to hear the next song and ended up skipping through.  Later (on my second listen), once I got my ‘Age Of Empires’ game going (this is normally what I do when listening to music – yes, I’m bit of a dork), this intro came suddenly to life!  The drama of dozens of little men galloping across the field of battle beneath a barrage of arrows was almost too fitting to the piece.  After that, the remainder of the album plays out like a macabre soundtrack to the apocalypse!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that pretty much every song is infested with musical hooks that tend to creep into your ‘brains internal playlist’ hours after even just two listenings, and still continuing to haunt the ‘minds ear’ days later.  In my view, this is the mark of a truly memorable album.  As a whole, the instruments all fall into a masterful blend of rhythm and melody.  Throughout the album, the music displays a good balance between fast-paced power and sufficient ‘ambient’ fillers like break-downs, lead-solos, and other such items.  There are even some very nice synth-like pieces that crop up here and there also incorporating the occasional string instrument.  A nice feature is how the flow from one song to the next is virtually un-interrupted (if listened to on a decent CD-player that does not space a gap between tracks).  The only thing about the music itself that I might make extra comment on is that many of the songs tend to be made up of similar riff-formula’s (typical of more modern interpretations of the metal genre) where I might have enjoyed a little more variety.  On that note, I’d not say that variety is completely lacking – No!  The fourth track, ‘Mending The Dead Army Part II’, seems to break away very nicely and I’m looking forward to hearing a further exploration of that on the next album!  For the reasons that they are composed of different ‘musical components’, I find this track – as well as the closing song, ‘Massacre Of The 9th Hell’ – to be the strongest two on the album and cannot help myself but to play them repeatedly. 
Louis Henn (who also is the mastermind behind the recording, mixing, and mastering of the album) is a strong vocalist who covers three distinguishable ranges.  It seems to me that by the primary use of his higher “scream” vocal, that this must be his most comfortable fit. Unfortunately, in the context of this review being of my personal experience of the album, this is not my most comfortable ‘listening fit’.  I suppose it’s my being more from ‘the old school’ that I’m much more partial to his low-pitched growl which does not feature quite as much.  However, even less featured is Louis’ mid-range vocals which I think sound really good!  I’d liked to have heard more of the singing done in that mid-range as it’s got a really nice ‘grittiness’ to it and I can hear the lyrics better in that pitch – and in this album they only punctuate certain parts briefly, here and there.  Again, I’m looking forward to hearing more explorations in future albums.  None-the-less, I think this is a great album which has provided me with listening pleasure from beginning to end – which in my books is a rare feat indeed, regardless of local or international status.  The production quality is up to scratch and I’m impressed to see that the whole process through from tracking to mastering was all completed at Burning Tone Studio right here in Cape Town.  I think that once other local bands have given this album a serious listen, the studio should be expecting some more business headed their way.  In the context of South African metal, there is much about ‘Recursive’ that I believe has set a benchmark by which other bands releases will be measured. If not by others, then certainly by myself.