(written by Islander)
Radiant Knife is a superb name for a musical group. It would be alluring regardless of genre, though maybe especially for a metal band. Knives are utilitarian but inherently dangerous, and the human soul yearns for danger, at least in non-lethal doses, because the adrenaline kick makes us feel alive. And the idea of a knife that shines, especially a vision of one that doesn’t merely reflect but generates its own light, is suggestive not just of danger but of another world beyond our own.
The Radiant Knife we’re speaking of today is the southern Louisiana duo of Stephen Sheppert (guitars, synth, vocals) and Greg Travasos (drums). It is perhaps not coincidental that the name of the river that runs along the banks of their hometown Lafayette is Vermilion, and that the town’s original name was Vermilionville. It’s an earthly color, but not a common color coming off of radiant knives. Its hue is also fiery (or bloody), and the pigment can be toxic.
Well, now that we’ve planted a few ideas in your head, drawn from the name and location of Radiant Knife, we can turn to the music on their new album Sankalpa and see if those ideas have any currency in this new music.
Photo by Greg Travasos
Sankalpa is Radiant Knife’s sixth record (and third album) since the band’s genesis in 2016. They’ve said this about it:
It’s hard to believe but Sankalpa is our sixth release in over a decade of making music together. Our albums tend to ebb and flow between heavy and melodic atmospheres, and Sankalpa is no different though it projects a more melancholic backdrop compared to the pent-up tension in our 2023 release, Pressure. This record is densely layered, traversing diverse sonic territories from grim acoustic ballads to brooding math metal riffs. It’s a holistic record, stringing together all our musical tangents into a cohesive otherworldly vibe.
The song titles alone line up with the idea of traversing different sonic territories, but also of varying territories of the imagination which are sometimes quite earthy and at other times out of this world. The music oscillates — and it’s gratifying to see that the name of the second song is in fact “Crystal Oscillation” — but the oscillation is internal to each song as well as occurring among them.
That was evident in the album’s first single, which shares the name of the album. Over the course of the nearly nine minutes consumed by “Sankalpa” Radiant Knife change course repeatedly. They begin with vivid skull-popping beats, abrasively clanging notes, enormous bass-throbs, and strangely dancing keys, and then they repeatedly twist the music in even more deranged directions (while still slugging very damned hard).
The music manically darts and heavily gouges, feverishly twitches and boldly brays, sends celestial keys shimmering overhead and inflicts brutishly chugging flurries, rhythmically rocks out and goes off-kilter, and becomes dreamy and woozy near the end, even as it continues to jab like a jackhammer.
That title song doesn’t include vocals, and doesn’t suffer from their absence. The second single, “Disciple Of The Astral Plane“, does include vocals. It also takes us away from the known world, not just in its name but in its aggregation of sounds. As the band said: The song “explores the roots of human consciousness, and our connection to each other and the not so apparent universe. Driving transcendental riffs, floating vocals and subtle synth overlays eventually culminate into anthemic dueling guitars guiding you off the edge of the astral plane.”
The opening riff of that song doesn’t suggest an astral journey. Its tone is rough and ragged, like some big machine chewing through concrete, but as boulder-sized beats and megaton bass-lines come in, an overlay of radiance emerges far overhead, great shining sonic swaths of unearthly brilliance, and Stephen Sheppert’s singing is way up there too. It’s exhilarating to hear him.
Yet the song also includes humongous jolts, and there’s no escaping the bone-vibrating heaviness of the bass, both of which create stark contrasts with the ethereal sheen in the song’s stratosphere, the sky-high singing, and the crystalline wailing of a guitar solo. Simultaneously, the music is wondrously celestial and granite-hard, head-spinning and reflexively muscle-moving.
Photo by Greg Travasos
The musical oscillations continue no matter where you land on the track list. “Down By The River Bank” brings us back to earth, perhaps to the shores of the Vermilion. Mid-paced in its motion, it divulges an acoustic melody with a kind of swampy mood and a clean-sung melody that sounds steeped in sorrow. Once again, the bass lands a heavyweight anchor and synths shroud the somber song in… radiance.
But the song also gets a whole lot heavier and more hard-hitting, and the melody grows more intense — more ravishing and more fiery, especially when a guitar solo screams. The guitars also tick and throb, and the drums pound their own pulse, creating a kind of strange segue into the song’s finale, which includes an anguished piano melody draped with ghostly shimmering tones.
If you oscillate yourself back up to the top of the track list you’ll encounter “Amber Waves” and the afore-mentioned “Crystal Oscillation“, two more names that alternately suggest earth-bound sights and things you can’t touch. The former is bluesy and bayou-bound, glittering and also funky (at least the bass is), seductive in its slower acoustic aspects but also sinister, and Sheppert’s singing beautifully suits all those moods. This one sounds very much born of the place where Radiant Knife make their home.
On the other hand “Crystal Oscillation” drives with a jumping beat and the guitars rapidly and gloriously vibrate, and then the song hits the road in the fast lane, delivering a raucous, riotous, and skull-cracking thrill-ride — though one where something dark, menacing, and not quite human is riding shotgun with you. Before the end it begins to seem like the tires have left the road and shining wonders lie ahead of us in the clouds toward which we fly.
Well, I probably should spare you the potential tedium of continuing to discuss the new songs one by one, especially since I could spill out just as many words about the other five songs as I have the first five. And maybe it’s just as well that I’m calling a halt to that, because it’s better for you to discover their own unpredictable oscillations for yourselves without any surprises having been spoiled.
It’s enough to say that Sankalpa is an entirely captivating album — imaginative, genre-bending, beautifully performed, both dangerous and radiant, both heartbreaking and heart-bursting, earthbound and out of this world, and well worth your time from its arresting start to its soul-shaking finish.
All the songs on Sankalpa were recorded, mixed, and mastered by Stephen Sheppert at Starless Sound. The wonderful cover art was created by Terry Grow. The album will be released this coming Friday the 13th of November. It will be released digitally across all streaming platforms and you can pre-order it on Bandcamp now:
PRE-ORDER:
https://radiantknife.bandcamp.com/album/sankalpa
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