Andrew Danso

Have you heard everything here already? Nearly. The underlying discrepancy with everything Tandjent have presented on “No One Will Hear Us” is that it is straight imitation. Yet it’s done in a manner that is somehow fresh. For all of the wrong reasons, Tandjent’s debut is solid, worthy enough of their hero’s recognition (if they embrace copycats) and likewise of their main influence, technically sound. Meshuggah’s “Destroy Erase Improve”, and Fredrik Thordendal’s scientific “Special Defects”, are no easy feats to emulate, let alone weave together; but somehow, they’ve done it.

Everything from the shotgun guitars that Hagstrom phrased in relation to Destroy Erase Improve, to Thordendal’s jazz-like-Allan-Holdsworth lead guitar, to Haake’s mechanical grooves have been layered anew amongst different riff progressions. You could swear their final number “The Path Of True” is “Soul Burn” when your eyes are closed, if only for a brief moment. The margins are really too close on periods of the album to applaud; but applaud you will, at the sheer technical know-how and brazenness of it all.

The same concoction thrown into different, if lesser test tubes. This embodies Tandjent’s plagiarised formula as if it were something they had been born to do. But even as you try to wave notions of theft in front of the project, their regurgitation tastes just as good, and just as technical. Perhaps the critic must learn to unlearn to fully appreciate “No One Will Hear Us”.

Tandjent’s debut is packed full of technical nous, but is artistically a moot point. At Metal Mayhem UK, we can only see a vast potential and lend a thought that they’ll find their feet, come the second release. Here’s hoping.

7/10 Metal-Mayhem.co.uk