I’ve never been a fan of progressive metal, Cynic and Atheist do nothing for me and bands like Mouth Of The Architect bore the shit out of me, yet in 2006 Intronaut stood above their peers and impressed me with their debut full length offering Void. The release was an amazing combination of compelling song writing, odd rhythms, excellent guitar and bass work and a great mix of aggression and melody.

After releasing a follow-up EP entitled The Challenger in 2007, the band parted ways with former Impaled and Exhumed guitarist/vocalist Leon del Muerte signed with Century Media and began work on their second full length offering, Prehistoricisms. After three solid releases, my expectations were pretty high for this album and, unfortunately, Intronaut didn’t quite live up to them.

Prehistoricisms sees the band playing the same basic style that made them popular with odd rhythms, strange time signatures and excellent guitar and bass work, they main difference being the song writing has suffered with Leon’s departure from the band. On previous efforts there’d be the crazy time signatures and a great mix of aggression and melody, however on Prehistoricisms the band has changed direction slightly going for a more traditional progressive sound with the aggression turned way down.

The bass work is a lot prevalent on this release as well which gives the material a much jazzier and more progressive feel. Intronaut have stepped it up a great deal technically with Prehistoricisms, but the song writing is much less appealing than on Null, Void and The Challenger. While those releases were captivating, Prehistoricisms tends to become background music and I zone out frequently.

It’s obvious that Prehistoricisms is definitely an Intronaut release, there’s no denying it because there really aren’t any bands who sound quite like that they do, but it’s definitely not their best. Not by a long shot. The song writing on this release suffers from a lack of originality at points as the band use a lot of riffs and song segments from Void on here, only with much less energy and rage.

I’m not saying Prehistoricisms is a bad album, it’s still good, but I’m not going to listen to it after I’m done reviewing it because I really don’t like the direction the band has taken. It just doesn’t have the passion of Null, Void and The Challenger. Intronaut are such a good band when they’re playing up tempo and with harsh vocals, but when things slow down and they focus more on melody and being progressive they just become dull and lifeless.

Prehistoricisms will likely be a progressive metallers wet dream, but for me it’s just another disappointing CD that I purchased with high hopes that failed to live up to expectations. Fans of earlier Intronaut releases may like this, but it’s definitely more for the progressive crowd than the extreme metal crowd. Do yourselves a favor and go out and buy Void if you don’t already own it, it really is a phenomenal release, if you enjoy it definitely check out Null and The Challenger but most people should skip Prehistoricisms because, like my neutered cat, it lacks balls.

Written By: Teufel