Inner Odyssey - The Void (2020)

Having been formed in 2007 Inner Odyssey are a five piece outfit hailing from Canada. Their brand of prog combines fragile and emotional moments, ambient moments and straight forward metal chords. It is obvious that the band has been inspired by a broad range of influences. You are going to find nods to classic prog from the 70s, soft rock, but also modern melodic prog metal (think Threshold, Haken, Voyager etc.). “The Void” is their third full length, showing a band at the top of their game, giving us a captivating piece of music.

Sweepingly epic harmonies are pitched against the crunchy and hefty riffs, melted into songs that combine heaviness, technical prowess and breath-taking melodies. Guitarist Vincent and keyboarder Mathieu are building a dynamic team, with their playing being perfectly attuned to one another. The lead harmonies range from being uplifting and lofty, to some darker and often melancholic moments. It is impressive how those chords and trademark melodies are creating a certain mood in the listener’s head.

The skills of the musicians are absolutely top, but I am glad to report that Inner Odyssey always keep focused and concentrate on offering well-crafted and stringent songs. Of course you are going to find rhythm changes and polyrhythms here and there, but nothing too over-boarding that would completely take the listener out of the flow. The songs are structured in a way so that they can be easily enjoyed by each fan of the genre.

The rhythm section does a great job in building the backbone for all the riffs and majestic harmonies, but also adding a few spectacular moments to ramp up the intensity. Even the bass gets a few moments to shine. Soloing sections can become a bit extended, but often work as transition between different sequences of one song. The placement of the various tracks has been well planned, so that the listener gets the feeling of a continuous thread running through the whole album. A lot of acoustic passages link the tracks with one each other, helping to paint the bigger picture. I know this sound like a cliché for prog music, but it really does not make sense to pick out single tracks here, but look at this album in its entirety.

One of the biggest assets of Inner Odyssey for sure is singer Étienne. Music that is so emotional and passionate asks for a word class vocalist, who is able to present all the different moods without a problem and Étienne is doing just that. He is delivering in powerful manner, switching between a mellow and softer tone and a more powerful style, depending what the respective part asks for. His range is impressive, and his work is ramping the emotional intensity of the music up a notch. Like it is often the case with prog metal albums there is a well-thought story told through the lyrics, underlining the coherent nature of the package.

The production is pretty much flawless, and it is obvious that a lot of work has been put into creating the album. The mix is well balanced with each instrument being fully audible. The sound is crystal clear, with the guitars having a nice and crunchy tone and the drums sounding punchy and powerful. It speaks for the sound engineering that although so much is going on no detail has been buried in the mix.

“The Void” is a great work of art that should be consumed in the right way. It might take more than one spin to really appreciate everything on offer here, but I can assure every fan of progressive metal/rock music that the investment is easily worth it. This is one of the records which might be mentioned in a few years from now, when talking about underrated gems of the genre.