Despite being familiar with their output for a number of years, my relationship with Australia's finest reached a new high with the arrival of Alien back in 2019. Since then they've been a staple in my musical rotations and playlists. And with my re-exploration of their discography, I very quickly realized how more I prefer their work with Marcus Bridge behind the mic. His stunning vocals do play a role in this but it mostly comes down to the colorful approach they've been taking since the release of Node. As much as I like Node, you could tell it was a "transitional" record which became that more apparent when they decided to drop Mesmer out of nowhere exactly five years ago.
You know what this means. Time to open up the vaults yet again and induct this absolute rager amongst the likes of yesterday's covered Koloss and Tesseract's One. A more than earned position and with this I'll hopefully shed more light on why I consider Northlane as one of the best bands on the planet in recent times. Let's begin.
Being no strangers to brutal openers, I think it says a lot how I find "Citizen" their most powerful introduction to an album yet. Containing one of my all time favorite riffs and great lyricism that I'll touch upon a bit later, "Citizen" showcases what you can expect from Mesmer. Disgusting grooves, extremely tasty cyclical fret movements and the bass audibly assisting them as well as stellar vocals which jump between extremes in stunning fashion. Furthermore, there's a constant stream of synthy spacious ambient droning beneath the complex playfulness these guys always excelled at. And while they had a knack for memorable melodies in their earlier days, the arrival of Marcus improved this tenfold.
What sets him apart is not just his technical proficiency, energy, range nor phrasing, it's control. Knowing how and when to take a step back or fully commit requires patience and maturity but most importantly confidence. Which comes from the feeling of comfort and that's something that Node lacked in so I am very glad he came completely into his own here and the fact he contributed with some personal lyrics reinforces this statement.
"Heartmachine" and "Fade", particularly the latter as it deals with the death of his father which then opened the floodgates that would be then further explored on Alien and to huge success.
For that alone this makes Mesmer a much more important record than it seems on first glance. Yes Node marked the beginning of their flirtations with alternative metal, electronics and djent-inspired grooviness but Mesmer saw them take a big risk.
As I mentioned, Mesmer was a surprise release which, according to my understanding, is something labels are not particularly fond of so the quintet had to be very careful about this and of course, being themselves, they left cryptic messages, chatbots and easter egg websites that fans could attempt to decipher.
You know, the more I think of it, the more I like this aspect of Northlane as it shows them trusting their fanbase and being willing to think outside of the box, something so many bands miss as they focus more on chasing Spotify numbers and algorithm pleasing.
Best thing about all of this is how the album still managed to land high spots on certain music charts which is not something I pay attention to but I can't help but feel proud what these five achieved especially after facing so much adversity.
Unfortunately, this proved to be the last full length release of theirs with Alex Milovic handling bass duties. Losing a founding member is never easy but he made it worth with his final contributions which are frankly, amazing. To have such an enormous and always present bass in the mix in a album by a band that build their name on intricate guitar playing just goes to show how important and respected he was. And it's not just the tone obviously, it's his playing.
Personal favorites include "Savage" which provided surprisingly plenty of room for him which he gladly capitalized on. Granted, this is far from a calm track as it's still dominated by a particularly groovy Nic Pettersen once again cementing his status as one of the best drummers in the scene and despicably heavy riffs.
However, it's on the Limp Bizkit-influenced "Solar" where Alex got to shine fully. Oh and when I said Limp Bizkit, I wasn't thinking of ole' Fred Durst, I was thinking of Wes Borland. Regardless of your opinion on the band as a whole, you can't deny how specific Borland's clean tone and picking style are and I'm very glad a band of Northlane's calibre honored that. I'm sure these guys grew up with nu metal which, surprise surprise, becomes more apparent the further you go in their discography.
And for someone like me who spent most of his high school days in angst further cultivated by bands like Korn, early Deftones, Slipknot, Mudvayne and the rest, that's kinda neat. Of course those days are far behind me but I truly love seeing modern bands like Northlane, Thornhill, Don Broco, Vein.fm and others honoring this strange period in popular music in their own unique way.
That was a nice digression... now back to the matter at hand! Lyrics. As mentioned, some deeply personal things are addressed here, mostly in the later half of the album. "Paragon" honours a long-time friend of the band and huge influence Tom Searle of Architects which closes Mesmer on a very heavy note. It's a strange full circle of sorts as Northlane named themselves after one of their songs. Never was a fan of them, even less so these days but respect where it's due.
And then you have "Veridian" which covers a rarely talked about topic. Because euthanasia is illegal in Australia, Josh Smith's great grandmother was forced to be kept alive and the last words she told Josh were: "I never wanted to grow so old." She was 94.
Shivers every time.
On the other side of the spectrum we have the aforementioned "Citizen" which tackles Edward Snowden and what his actions brought to the table regarding digital surveillance. In case you didn't get it by now, Northlane are based.
Now as much as I love all of the tracks presented, one always stood out. "Intuition". The sheer savagery of it, the absolutely insane riffs, Marcus' ridiculous screams, that fucking breakdown, it's complete and utter madness. And then you hear it:
"Wander, question, find your obsession."
Not long after you hear the tastiest "Fuck the system" I've had the pleasure of hearing. It's not forced or corny, it's a legitimate and passionate fuck you to this "order" and what it does to individuals that attempt and break away from the norms and how much the weight of forced expectations can damage said individual.
It's succinct but vague enough to not come off as cheesy. Guess you could say they've followed their... intuition.
I'll show myself out... No really, I will. Believe I covered everything I wished without resorting to track-by-track doodoo so many tend doing and while I sometimes find myself lacking the vocabulary (and theoretical knowledge) to express why I found that particular chord as potent or how much that decelerando in "Colourwave" gets me pumped but in the end it's all good. Like Meshuggah, Northlane occupy a unique, prestigious spot in their genre that no one can match and it was in my opinion Mesmer that truly started this transition before Alien further expanded it and Obsidian surely continuing to do the same. A journey that culminated with the Northlane of today, a completely independent, unique and boundary pushing act doing things on their own terms. Happy 5th anniversary you gloriously catchy riff and melody factory you!
Mesmer was released via UNFD on March 24th of 2017.
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