Northlane get stuck on the retro/futuristic divide
NORTHLANE HAVE
REACHED a point in their 12-year career where they’re clearly striving to be more self-sufficient, releasing their sixth full-length through their own imprint and self-producing the record. The latter often comes from a desire to have complete creative control over a musical vision, but can lead to a band reaching beyond their capabilities.
Northlane haven’t fallen into that trap; the production on Obsidian is crystal clear without losing any sense of the heaviness of those meaty, djent-inflected riffs. Clockwork and Echo Chamber effortlessly combine heavy guitars with electro-dance orientated synths. Sadly, there’s not an awful lot beneath the surface, with the disco-beat industrial stomp of Echo Chamber coming across as budget Static-X. Carbonized, meanwhile, glides a little too close to King 810 territory for comfort.