If this album was written and recorded in El Paso, Texas in the year 2000 it would seem entirely plausible. Speculative Fiction shares so many of the wonderful personality traits as a pillar of the genre, At The Drive In from winding guitars which border on the unhinged before revealing raw emotion in every erratic riddle. Take that and add some Palm Reader and Birds in Row and you have a cacophony which is heart-wrenching in its delivery and composed with magnificent detail.
Carrying the emotional toil of Touché Amoré, founding member and vocalist Adam Paul is a flawless conduit for Speculative Fiction impassioned address which begins not with sonic assault but with eerie vocals and gradual emergence in ‘The Waiter’ with the distorted signal crashing into the rasp and anguish of Paul to give us our harrowing introduction. Its frankness is interlaced with just as much melodicism as lead single ‘Crashing Into A Hillside In The Dead Of Night’ is ripped straight from the heart of the early 2000s with a Sega Genesis Star Fox inspired music video to colour its howling chorus and feverish guitars. Their science fiction inspired presentation bleeds into their stage presence as TV monitors litter stages as an aching Paul who is often wrapped in his own cables to express a message of personal devastation, personified in ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ and its frantic performance video.
“This is post-hardcore with true integrity and genuine artistic purpose”
After such a barrage we begin to see the other elements of the band’s formula shine as a strong and commanding bass from Alex Wheatley leads the line in ‘Pylon Cult’ and anchors us into a Cedric Bixler-Zavala style monologue which sits at the axis of swirling guitars and the endless crash of thunderous cymbal. Regardless of Indifferent Engine’s pace, none of the intensity is lost and the production of Tom Hill carries what makes their live performance so mesmerising into a studio representation which doesn’t lose any of its raw ferocity. Turning up their blistering levels with ‘Modern’ which bolts from the gates with the kind of power which feels like Palm Reader back from the dead as guitars are deafening with the only reprieve being the flickering of keys which appear amongst the onslaught of noise. Through the album’s central nervous system lies a plethora of glorious textures from samples, static rain and the warble of unexplored space to leave you feeling like no stone was unturned during the album’s world building. Album highlight ‘Primrose and Acetate’ is a radiant confessional which feels like the closest we’ll get to Lower Than Atlantis, showing Paul at his most sentimental with an impressive singing performance.
This is post-hardcore with true integrity and genuine artistic purpose, not many bands come along and feel free flowing and fully realised on debut. It’s a collision of decades as different branches of post-hardcore bind together to create a tortured presentation. In an age where post-hardcore has been stripped of originality and swallowed up by the pristine to lack any organic feeling, Indifferent Engine deserve to be seen as a landmark band to help shepherd post-hardcore back into an era of excitement and ingenuity. If not, they go away, and we’ll end up with a thousand more algorithm chasing clones, and we’ll only have ourselves to blame.