Live4Metal review

Indigent received a lot of good press for their 2004 demo and I can only see more praise heading their way with the release of the very impressive Simulacrum. I say ‘their’ but Indigent is actually a solo project, with all the vocals, drums, guitars, bass and drum sequencing being provided by Richard Tomsett – and a very fine job he has done too. At heart Simulacrum is a death metal album but it offers far more than that simple description might suggest. There’s a constant sense of melody flowing through the richly textured, twisting and turning riffs, there’s a spiky experimental edge to the composition and a willingness to look outside the box for whatever elements a song might require. ‘Ages Past Weeping’ begins with a massive slice of doom as the song initially crawls forward like some gargantuan beast crushed beneath an unimaginable weight of sorrows. The only problem being that the listener is far too quickly dragged away from this beautiful despair and flung too roughly into a more headlong, frenzied assault. Then there is the unnamed fifth track which is an excellent, fragile atmospheric break which drifts like smoke from the wreckage of the preceding ‘Dust’ and the hugely ambitious ‘The Life Parade’ which closes the album with real scope and emotional depth. There are hints of Dark Tranquillity and even Emperor in places, but Indigent retain an original sound throughout. I suppose progressive death metal might be the most appropriate tag for songs like the nicely constructed title track and that word ‘progressive’ should alert you to the fact that this is not easy listening. Indigent’s music is not the sort of thing you can just passively absorb as background sound. These songs require real listening, real participation, if you’re not going to be lost in the labyrinth of riffing. Very occasionally there are areas, most noticeably in ‘Dust’ and the premature abandoning of the doom in ‘Ages Past Weeping’ where a little more attention to overall song structure is needed but that is something that will undoubtedly develop with maturity and experience, because Richard Tomsett clearly has talent and imagination to spare. Indigent are already exceedingly good but the project possesses near limitless potential and that makes it a very exciting prospect indeed.

Chris Kee