EXCLUSIVE: “The Great Child” – Prime Meridian [Single/2014]

Artist: Prime Meridian

“The Great Child” – Single

It really is positively mind-blowing, that, at the end of the day, every human action is caused by randomized collisions occurring at an atomic scale. Take a second to really ponder it: every great war ever caused, every defining moment in Human history boils down to cells—enzymes, proteins, chemicals—and the things that comprise them aligning in such a way that a thought propagates, a muscle twitches and there is action. This same miraculous rhetoric can be applied to the latest single from the giants of groove, Prime Meridian. “The Great Child” is an immense, unstoppable release that, even down to its most simplified and subtle sections, is still a marvelously complex and crushing experience. Laden with the bounciest grooves that lace together the most brutalizing breakdowns and dissonant, diverse riffs the genre has to offer, “The Great Child” is an awe-inspiring single that will surely whet the listener’s appetite for the band’s EP due later this year.

Starting with subtle, microscopic levels of intensity, “The Great Child” builds, slowly, the result of so many chemical reactions occurring concurrently. Catalytically, Shae Portner’s raw, visceral mid range shout rises, lifted by the Eric Fletcher’s furious fretwork, as a sliding, fluid groove serves as a scaffold to lift the vocals—and an atmospheric lead riff—up to the listener’s attention span; a Trojan horse offering of calm, collected instrumentation. However, as soon as the catalysis is complete, “The Great Child” kicks into full gear, as subtle, slick grooves sprout into full-on, grime-covered and gruesome monoliths of progressive metalcore brutality. Likewise, the percussion roars into fruition, pummeling the listener with a plodding, beefy kick drum and an absolutely neck-snapping snare that leaves the listener broken. Over top of it, the vocals simply soar. Portner’s pure, perfect mid-range shout works side by side with the mastery of Chris Balay (of the elite metalcore act, Elitist) to tear the listener into shreds with sheer vocal viciousness. The first half of the song uses immense and incredibly technical riffs and unpredictable song structure to build a towering cathedral of sound, whose intricacy is nigh indescribably. However, just as the listener finds themselves inside this synagogue of sinister, shreddy metalcore—it digresses, as a series of crushing, catastrophic breakdowns bring the building down all around them, burying them alive with a sequence of punishing heaviness that comes completely out of left field.

From innocuous, conspicuous beginnings, “The Great Child” acts as a marvel of modern musicianship to rise forth and wreak havoc upon the listener. Bouncy, dissonant grooves, intense fretwork and immaculate vocals provide the basis for a technical adventure that rapidly morphs into a brutalizing, bone-crushing lesson in progressive metalcore that will have the listener chomping at the bit for the band’s full release.

5/5

For Fans Of: Nexilva, Volumes, The Room Colored Charlatan, Delusions of Grandeur

By: Connor Welsh