Andrew Danso

Intronaut are roundly known as a prog metal outfit, as they tend to blend all of their established mentors into one listenable package. They fleet along the lines of Opeth, Cynic, Mastodon and Gojira; that’s not to detract from this talented bunch, they merely adapt ideas from their masters template and show a lot of brazenness at mimicking in their hierarchies footsteps.

Valley of Smoke is a colourful grab-bag, littered in several visions and executed with great imagination – if over the top at times. There’s the odd jig of time signature in track “Miasma” which then jives into a delayed jazzy prog thrill. “Elegy” is more of a Gojira downtuned assault, and “Sunderance” is far direct in its aggression, layered above the double kicks. Taking into account the above, there’s an annoying flow about the entire release, a coherency missing that has to be expected when laying so many cards on the table. But, ambition is short-sighted, and Intronaut are slowly unravelling the blindfold.

7/10 Powerplay issue #128