‘The album feels both written by students, with its relentless ambition and a theatrical grandiosity only born by youthful optimism, but also by masters – it is emotional, memorable, and mature at the same time.‘
Release date: April 21, 2015 | Metal Blade Records | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
This might be the greatest one-and-done in the history of progressive metal: Quiet World by Native Construct dropped into the waters of the modern prog scene to a formidable sense of shock and awe. Who were these newcomers that lifted neo-classical metal to the next level? And as fast as they came, they disappeared for a multitude of reasons. The looming ‘What if?’s will never dissipate, but the album will forever stand as a towering achievement.
Landon Turlock
Progressive music, aptly, progresses. It shifts, changes, evolves. This happens over the course of a song, an album, a genre. Within that genre, we get bombast, theatrics, and (sometimes reckless) ambition. Things can go off the rails, if we accept the premise there are rails to begin with. I, for one, argue that rails like melody, hooks, and recurring motifs help keep some semblance of direction for the listener, even when the rails go over unimaginable terrain. The debut, and only, album from Boston band Native Construct, Quiet World, does just that with its ability to introduce and masterfully weave together musical and lyrical themes throughout its unexpected and chaotic twists and turns.
Quiet World dropped in 2015, a progressive rock/metal concept album built around one song (“Chromatic Aberration”) that was improvised by a bunch of Berklee School of Music students years before. The album feels both written by students, with its relentless ambition and a theatrical grandiosity only born by youthful optimism, but also by masters – it is emotional, memorable, and mature at the same time. Opener “Mute” flits from choral arrangements and haunting music box melodies to blackened blasts and technical passages that would not be out of place on a, for an on-the-nose example, Between the Buried and Me album. The comparison is an intentional one, and BTBAM vocalist Tommy Rogers helped bring Quiet World to the masses. The theatricality and technicality unite both bands, but Quiet World has an orchestral flair and mastery of various genre influences that set them apart.
Quiet World embraces a scope and execution in its seven tracks and 48 minutes that few progressive acts accomplish, even with substantially larger discographies. “Spark of The Archon” flits from video game soundtracks to massive, djenty grooves, journeying into a full-on jazz overture. The track later erupts into a series of technical metal passages that would lose a listener if they did not simultaneously revisit and establish motifs that the audience becomes intimately familiar with as they morph and change over the album’s runtime. “Come Hell or High Water”, another favourite of mine, further leans into the band’s neoclassical influences, at times evoking The Human Abstract.
Quiet World was one of my favourite records of 2015, and my love for it has only grown. I had the privilege of interviewing Myles Yang, the album’s primary composer, and seeing the band live shortly before the band announced their hiatus. I could spend hours, and have, diving into all the beautiful nuances and intricacies of Quiet World. I would encourage you to instead take it all in for yourself. There is a certain tragic beauty in having the one album this band has released being as nearly perfect as it is. And I am sad that we will very likely never hear another piece of music from Native Construct. But as long as I have this record, I can relisten as much as I like, and I’ll continue doing just that.
