Inertia: ‘Memoria’ Review
The album artwork for ‘Memoria’
Contemporary metalcore acts experiment with genre-bending. Recent releases, like Bad Omens’ ‘The Death of Peace of Mind’ and Northlane’s ‘Obsidian’, incorporate elements foreign to earlier metalcore. Case in point: Inertia’s March EP ‘Memoria’ opens with a synth line, not a drum intro or a hard-charging guitar riff. In fact, most of the songs on the EP have some synth texture, and the opener ‘Arisaka’ is no different. Metalcore has come a long way since the days of Converge.
Inertia is a four-piece band out of Sydney, Australia – one more fantastic metalcore act from down under. Jay Cusack drums; Oliver Smith has the low end; Mark Williamson handles the guitar, recording, and mixing for the group’s releases; and Julian Latouche has the mic. ‘Memoria’ is their third release and second EP. Their debut album, ‘Unlearn’, came out in 2017. They’ve toured in support of notable acts like Thornhill, Story of The Year, and Void of Vision. While Inertia takes elements from like-minded Australian acts, they carve their own territory with ‘Memoria’.
Inertia’s midpoint song ‘Parallels’ has all the hallmarks of modern metalcore: superb melodies, synth lines and textures, aggressive guitars, and monster breakdowns. If “Parallels” doesn’t convince you that Inertia can do furious, classic metalcore, “Nemesis” will. It clocks in at less than 2:30 and there is nary a synth to be heard over the squalling guitars and howling vocals.
Uninterested in continuing to prove they’ve done their time in the core scene, Inertia begins their closing track “Memoria” with a post-rock atmosphere akin to the sound of fellow metalcore artists Polaris. ‘Memoria’ continues the melodic vocals prominent throughout the EP, but the track also has the heaviest breakdown of the project. In true metalcore fashion, the lyric “holding onto every ounce of anger I inherit from you” introduces this aggressive, unsettling breakdown. It’s heavy, raw, and discordant. Williamson spikes away like he’s just come from an At the Drive-In concert. And in a terse 18 minutes, the EP is over.
Highlights:
- ‘Parallels’: I love singing and I love aggressive music. Voilà: ‘Parallels’.
- ‘Nemesis’: Pure adrenaline in two minutes and twenty-one seconds.
- ‘Memoria’: I’m always on the search for another earth-shattering breakdown. Thanks, Inertia, for my new favorite.
From a synth line to one of my favorite breakdowns of the year so far, Inertia’s ‘Memoria’ EP helps to drive the metalcore scene further into exciting experimentation. Yours truly finds himself wishing he had the funds for an extended trip to Australia to catch the band live on tour: perhaps Polaris are looking for a supporting act?
