AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: PRONOSTIC — “BARE AND WRETCHED”

The darkest clouds of the covid pandemic didn’t have many silver linings, but one of them is that the lockdowns gave musicians a chance to bring to fruition ideas that had been long-gestating. The Montreal-based technical/progressive melodic death metal band Pronostic is a prime example of that. The dead times allowed them to complete their second album, Chaotic Upheaval, which is set for release on May 12th. It follows their formidable full-length debut (An Atomic Decision) by a long eight years.

It’s fair to say that with this new album Pronostic pulled out all the stops. New participants have come on board, including Fleshgod Apocalypse‘s piano and orchestration maestro Francesco Ferrini; world-renowned drummer Samuel Santiago, known for his time in First Fragment, Gorod, Black Crown Initiate, and more; and fretless bassist extraordinaire Xavier Sperdouklis, whose resume includes work with Killitorous and Ignominy. Moreover, the new album includes a host of impressive guest appearances (which we’ll identify later in this feature). And they got Cryptopsy‘s Christian Donaldson to produce and record it along with the band’s Charles “Butcher” Pilotte.

And none of that is intended to take away from the songwriting and performance skills of continuing members Pilotte (Low Vocals / Guitar) and Alex Lauzon (High Vocals / Guitar).

What all these talents have accomplished on the new album has already been previewed by the release of a single called “L’impureté Globale” (accompanied by an ambitious post-apocalyptic music video), and today we’ve got a further preview in our premiere via a lyric video of the album track “Bare and Wretched“.

With respect to the inspiration for the album as a whole, Pronostic have disclosed:

“Our new album is a representation of several problems that people are going through every day. We are evolving on many levels, but regressing in other ways. People are being divided and choose to believe in comforting lies than hurtful truths. Chaotic Upheaval was inspired by the last couple of years, which have been difficult times for most of us. The lyrics on the album discuss topics such as mental health struggles, sickness, pollution, regrets that consume us, difficult relationships, and modern political and technology-related ills that seem to ail us”.

Concerning the song you’re about to hear, they’ve told us: “We live in a world full of diversions and sometimes we put a mask to cover our misery to show everybody that we’re fine. Trying to feed our dreams in a moment of illusion. Another song that speaks for itself, we hope you love it”.

“Bare and Wretched” bears out comparisons of the new album’s music to the likes of Obscura at their most melodic and Death-inspired, and Beyond Creation at their most progressive and death-metal-driven, and it’s also likely to appeal to fans of the technical/progressive melodic death metal explored by Allegaeon and Augury.

The music here is multi-faceted. On the one hand, the fury in the growled vocals, the harrowing screams, and the blazing and blistering riffage is undeniable, and the bursts of percussive mayhem are obliterating. On the other hand, the fretless bass soloing sounds both warm and weighed down by sorrow and dismay. On a third hand, the fast, jolting, stop-start grooves threaten spinal trauma. And that’s still not all.

The song includes glorious guitar soloing that spirals the song into elevated heights even as what’s going on behind it includes head-hammering beats and brazenly defiant chords. The song builds to a pinnacle of firebrand ferocity, but administers one last fast-paced beating before it lets go of you.

(This song includes guest vocals from Despised Icon drummer Alex Pelletier, and two other Montreal=based vocalists, Krissy O’Shaughnessy and Fannie Tassé Lessard.)

In addition to the bands mentioned above, Pronostic also cite as influences on Chaotic Upheaval the music of Cattle Decapitation, Lorna Shore, Ne Obliviscaris, Virvum, and Irreversible Mechanism.

And now here’s that list of the guests who contributed to the new Pronostic album:

Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy) – Guitar Solo on “Concealed Parasite”
Marc Roy – (Killitorous) Guitar Solo on “Concealed Parasite”
Sam Hampell – Saxophone on “Massive Disillusion”
Morane Chabot – Guitar Solo on “Massive Disillusion”
Alex Pelletier – Guest Vocals on “Massive Disillusion” & “Bare and Wretched”
Fannie Tassé Lessard – Guest Vocal on Massive Disillusion” & “Bare and Wretched”
Krissy O’Shaughnessy – Guest Vocal on “Massive Disillusion” & “Bare and Wretched”

As mentioned, the album was produced and recorded by Christian Donaldson and Charles B. Pilotte, and Donaldson also mixed and mastered it. The album features cover art by Filip Ivanović, known for his work with bands such as Origin, Beyond Creation, Cryptopsy, Augury, and many more.

For more info about the album, follow the locations linked below — and then be sure to listen to the explosive first single we mentioned at the outset, “L’impureté Globale“. (The video is great too.)

https://www.facebook.com/pronosticofficial
https://pronostic.bandcamp.com/merch