The Contortionist Megathread

[Flemmigan]

I'll answer this 8 months late - yes I have and they're one of the best live bands I've ever seen

Agree entirely. Saw them open for BTBAM on the Colors Anniversary Tour---probably the 5th or 6th time I've seen each band, but this set was on another level. Everything down to the lights and the moments of ambiance between songs was perfectly executed. Extremely powerful, and frankly the best live set I've ever seen. BTBAM was actually comparatively underwhelming (but still awesome)! Can't wait to see them again, and agree that hopefully Joey will be back on stage soon. His drumming has become some of my favorite, and actually motivated me to pick up the drums recently.

 

[nyxzz]

Agree entirely. Saw them open for BTBAM on the Colors Anniversary Tour---probably the 5th or 6th time I've seen each band, but this set was on another level. Everything down to the lights and the moments of ambiance between songs was perfectly executed. Extremely powerful, and frankly the best live set I've ever seen. BTBAM was actually comparatively underwhelming (but still awesome)! Can't wait to see them again, and agree that hopefully Joey will be back on stage soon. His drumming has become some of my favorite, and actually motivated me to pick up the drums recently.

Dude I saw them on the same tour in ATL so probably within days of you. I agree - their set was amazing and did kind of make BTBAM seem less awesome than usual (though they were still fantastic)

 

[MickD7]

I was wondering how they had done with the fill-in drummer, sounds like he was on point! Hopefully Joey will be back behind the kit shortly.

I honestly didn’t know they had a fill in until they finished the show and thanked him for sitting in on that tour.

 

[cip 123]

I was wondering how they had done with the fill-in drummer, sounds like he was on point! Hopefully Joey will be back behind the kit shortly.

I honestly didn’t know they had a fill in until they finished the show and thanked him for sitting in on that tour.

I think they were just fine as I believe the fill in was actually Joey's drum teacher at one point!

 

[Albake21]

Dude I saw them on the same tour in ATL so probably within days of you. I agree - their set was amazing and did kind of make BTBAM seem less awesome than usual (though they were still fantastic)

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I hated that show so much. Sure it looked entertaining, but damn that set list was brutal. It was so boring to me. Personally I love all of their work besides Language, but damn Clairvoyant is boring to listen to live. There's no energy. Plus throw in the fact that the one song that did have energy gets its energy pumping ending cut off. I love The Contortionist as they are literally my favorite band, but it seems like it's kinda over for me with them. That's coming from a fan of Clairvoyant.

 

[nyxzz]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I hated that show so much. Sure it looked entertaining, but damn that set list was brutal. It was so boring to me. Personally I love all of their work besides Language, but damn Clairvoyant is boring to listen to live. There's no energy. Plus throw in the fact that the one song that did have energy gets its energy pumping ending cut off. I love The Contortionist as they are literally my favorite band, but it seems like it's kinda over for me with them. That's coming from a fan of Clairvoyant.

Eh, just different opinions I guess. Last 2 albums are kind of chill energy for me, they're not the band that made exoplanet anymore. Mike is a great live vocalist and the band plays immaculately. I thought the title track had plenty of energy behind it live

 

[toolsound]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I hated that show so much. Sure it looked entertaining, but damn that set list was brutal. It was so boring to me. Personally I love all of their work besides Language, but damn Clairvoyant is boring to listen to live. There's no energy. Plus throw in the fact that the one song that did have energy gets its energy pumping ending cut off. I love The Contortionist as they are literally my favorite band, but it seems like it's kinda over for me with them. That's coming from a fan of Clairvoyant.

Couldn't have said it better. I was counting down the days until they played in Seattle and when the moment finally arrived, I found myself a little bored. This is also coming from a guy who loved Clairvoyant and had an amazing time watching The Contortionist live in the past. The tour for Language had better energy imo.

 

[teqnick]

I saw the Contortionist in 2012 with Last Chance to Reason, and AAL. Fuck, what a show. Long live the Exoplanet version of this band.

Sorry to derail , but not really.

 

[Flemmigan]

Dude I saw them on the same tour in ATL so probably within days of you. I agree - their set was amazing and did kind of make BTBAM seem less awesome than usual (though they were still fantastic)

Funny you say that, I actually was at the ATL show visiting a friend. Good times!

Clearly not everybody vibed with the show, but I loved it. Ideally, I would love to see them play an equal mix of stuff from all four albums, but I actually thought the set list was pretty nice. Reimagined is a snorefest live, though.

One of the things I love about this band is that even though their albums are so different, the progression has always seemed natural. I'm sure many will disagree with me, but I think it's clear in their polyrhythmic and mathy approach (dare I say... contorting) approach to composition. If you listen to Exoplanet (or even Apparition, eg the title track), you can hear the seeds for the rhythmic nuance in Clairvoyant. Yeah, the deathcore riffz and breakdunz (which I love) have gone away, but when I listen closely to the riffs in a song like Relapse, I could hear them being in Exoplanet. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about it, but I love that element in their music. It is true that they're never going to sound like Exoplanet again (barring an anniversary tour, which is all the rage these days), and it's a shame that that bums people out, although it's understandable. Coming from somebody who loved Exoplanet, I think it's a good thing.

Now give us a remastered version of Intrinsic, bois.

 

[squids]

Yes, I caught them on their tour with Sikth. The Clairvoyant stuff live was pretty damn solid and they pulled off a nice half and half set of Clairvoyant material and Language material. I was really surprised at how incredibly tight these guys are at doing what they do. This was the first time I had seen them having missed the tours that had taken place before that. They did pull out one song from Exoplanet I have no idea which one as I didn’t really do the death core thing.

Sikth where pretty amazing as well and worth the spectacle for sure. I could take or leave the masses of white boys with dreadlocks living the Korn days all over again Thing.

If you get the chance to see The Contortionist on tour do it.

Agreed with the masses of white boys part. what's up with that? when i saw Sikth on tour with Periphery, the room was half nerdy white guys and half Korn-fans, as a brown guy i felt very out of place (then again i usually do at metal shows).

I have since seen the Contortionist live, pretty much unlike any other band i've seen live.
I follow Robby Baca on instagram and he has been posting a lot of stuff in his story that suggests either a side project, or a return to a more "metal" sound.

 

[Albake21]

I follow Robby Baca on instagram and he has been posting a lot of stuff in his story that suggests either a side project, or a return to a more "metal" sound.

I can only hope so. As someone who liked Clairvoyant, I'd love to hear more metal from these guys. Two of my favorite guitar players. Plus I'd have to imagine that playing all of this soft stuff for too long would give you the itch to play some metal riffs again. I mean shit they started out and played super heavy for a while.

 

[cip 123]

My band gets to open for them in Glasgow on their UK tour. It'll be exciting and interesting to see their set, I love all their albums so I don't mind really, though I'd love to hear Language part 2!

 

[philkilla]

Saw them in ATL at the BTBAM colors extravaganza as well; probably my 3rd time seeing the contortionist, 4th for BTBAM.

The contortionist put on a great show, but it didn't compare to BTBAM melting everyone's faces with colors..

 

[gorthul]

I follow Robby Baca on instagram and he has been posting a lot of stuff in his story that suggests either a side project, or a return to a more "metal" sound.

I guess it's this project he has been teasing. Sounds a lot like the more mellow Exoplanet stuff.

 

[Albake21]

I guess it's this project he has been teasing. Sounds a lot like the more mellow Exoplanet stuff.

It says featuring though, is this for sure his project?

 

[gorthul]

I'm not so sure either. On Facebook they list the following:
Guitar/Writer - Kris Rehfuss
Vocals - (Seeking)
Bass - (Seeking)
Drums - Stephen Giovanneli

On Bandcamp they write:
Composer - Kris Rehfuss
Vocals - Val Whitaker
Bass writing and tracking - Robby Baca (The Contortionist)
Mixing and Mastering - Zeke Lindgren

So it might be that he just did this single / the upcoming album with him or they hired him as their Bass player...I honestly don't know. Anyways I think it would be great if he participated more in this project, it seems quite promising.

 

[Albake21]

I'm not so sure either. On Facebook they list the following:
Guitar/Writer - Kris Rehfuss
Vocals - (Seeking)
Bass - (Seeking)
Drums - Stephen Giovanneli

On Bandcamp they write:
Composer - Kris Rehfuss
Vocals - Val Whitaker
Bass writing and tracking - Robby Baca (The Contortionist)
Mixing and Mastering - Zeke Lindgren

So it might be that he just did this single / the upcoming album with him or they hired him as their Bass player...I honestly don't know. Anyways I think it would be great if he participated more in this project, it seems quite promising.

In the description of the video it says "Bass tracked by Robby Baca (The Contortionist)" so I'm pretty sure he was just a guest and that's it.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I really liked Language, and hadn't listened to Clairvoyant prior to seeing them in Nashville earlier this year. The show was cool, but the sound was not awesome and the vocals were buried the entire time, or so I thought. I picked up Clairvoyant at the show and jamming it in the car....it's so fucking boring compared to even Language. There was absolutely no reason to even bother with guitars on the record. It would be just as interesting with everything on the keys, bass, drums..... I actually do like listening to it, but I have to like remind myself that its not really The Contortionist as I would prefer them. Hopefully whatever comes next has even a HINT of some of the riffs/aggression that exoplanet and intrinsic had, otherwise I probably won't mess with them anymore. I thought they were on to something unique with those two records, and this new direction doesn't feel all that special to me. The soft singing stuff gets old after about 10 minutes when NOTHING ELSE IS HAPPENING.

 

[Avedas]

Can't stand deathcore so the newer stuff is actually pretty cool to me.

 

[Cheap]

I'm still a little salty that the crazy section in one of their teaser videos didn't make the final cut. I think they could've had one of the coolest moments in the genre this year if they went balls deep on Godspeed, but we just got half of a super sick riff

(i still love the record tho)