Indifferent Engine – Speculative Fiction | Album Premiere

Indifferent Engine collectively have a mission statement of subverting all expectations of what post-hardcore can be. Their debut LP Speculative Fiction upholds this mission and we’re overjoyed to premiere it.

Officially releasing May 30^th via Church Road Records, Speculative Fiction is a record that fully bucks the trend of what has come to be expected from the post hardcore genre. Whereas the foundations of the genre’s sound lie in the near bottomless ocean that is the human experience, a lot of records stemming from this genre in recent times barely skim the surface of this emotional sea. Nor do they truly embrace the crashing tides that are inherent to human emotion, or revel in the depths of dynamism that this genre offers. Basically, it feels a lot of the ‘big’ names of the genre have been lacking and lazy as of late. Cookie-cutter bands displaying faux-emotion and never truly demonstrating creativity or innovation. Indifferent Engine are the polar opposite of such bands.

Formed of members Adam Paul (guitars, vocals), Ellis Hale (guitars), Alex Wheatley (bass, synthesisers) Alister Gibbons (drums) and Tom Wilson (guitars, vocals), the Cambridge-based quintet animate the spectrum of the human existence with the vibrancy synonymous with it, a fact that irrefutable with Speculative Fiction. Shivering, shaking and thrashing with genuine emotion, here, Indifferent Engine in are thrall to the passion that comes with existence. Across the 11 tracks that compose this record, the band articulate this via a sound that feels far more progressive than their aforementioned peers.

As elements of post-hardcore ranging from At The Drive-In to current national scene staples such as Pleiades crest and crash to an outspoken strain of consciousness contracting in emotion, other motifs begin to emerge amongst the musical foam. Math-rock complexity squirms and spams in places, high-octane hardcore fury drives the record in others and a thick atmosphere of loss, dread and anxiety that’s reminiscent of post-rock lingers heavily across all of this. Yet all of these motifs, thoughts and ideas coalescence seamlessly. Despite this record’s relative sense of complexity, there’s cohesion and clarity that allows this profession that inherent sense of emotion to be fully digested without distraction, and Speculative Fiction feels like a record that their peers will see as a benchmark. In all, it would’t be too hyperbolic to say that what Indifferent Engine do for post-hardcore here is not unlike what Overhead, The Albatross have done for post rock.

Speculative Fiction is released May 30th via Church Road Records. Pre-order the record here, and stream the record early exclusively below.

<