Tallah – Matrigraphy

Tallah

Matrigraphy

Earache Records

Nu-Metal/Alternative Metal

FFO: Korn, Slipknot, Adema, Static X, Deftones, Coal Chamber

Aren’t time capsules great? They are the sort of object that when opened, they remind you of all things that were popular in that particular year. Hailing from Pennsylvania, Tallah are that sort of time capsule; with a sound that is c. 1999, the band’s debut album ‘Matrigraphy’ is ready to slip on those baggy jeans, oversized hoodies, angsty pheromones and adidas tracksuits to remind us of a time when Nu-Metal was the biggest movement on the planet.

                If you haven’t guessed it already, then Tallah take large swathes of influences from the Nu-Metal era and whilst for sometime now, even the word Nu-Metal was stained as dirty and is still considered to be ‘trash’ by the more ‘elite’ communities. However, Tallah are not a band which relies on past cliches and gimmicks to get their music across; this is Nu-Metal for a new generation and because of that, ‘Matrigraphy’ is an album which has a large contemporary edge to it by combining elements of both Metal and Deathcore into its remit and bundling it up within a contemporary production so tight that it could have been delivered by Nu-Metal maestro Ross Robinson himself. A production can only go so far if the songs aren’t there to back it up and with ‘Matrigraphy’ Tallah turn the angst up to 11 with tracks such as ‘Kungan’, ‘Placenta’ and ‘We, the Sad’ carrying all the emotional weight of Korn at their most creative, whilst ‘Overconfidence’ channels the primal energy and anger of Slipknot’s debut album in a time before they were selling out arenas and what is that noise during ‘L.E.D.’? yes, it is indeed a turntable scratching that doesn’t offer disgust, but instead a wry smile of enjoyment.

In fact, that may be the best way to describe this album, enjoyable, ‘Matrigraphy’ might not be everyone’s cup of tea and in all honesty, it is a tad too long, but there is a raw, commercial appeal here with anthemic chorus’ that may remind a lot of people why they even got into heavy metal in the first place.

Adam McCann