Charlie Griffiths – Tiktaalika
June 17th, 2022
Progressive Metal
InsideOut Music
London, England, UK
In 2020 I decided to check out the band Haken for the first time. I had heard of them numerous times both online and from friends of mine in real life who are super into progressive metal, and I was pleased with what I heard. Their 2020 record Virus ended up being one of my favourite albums of the year despite not really being all that into progressive metal at the time. When I found out that their guitarist Charlie Griffiths was releasing his first ever solo record I decided to give it a shot, unsure as to what I would hear, but I’m happy to say that what I heard was a magnificent opus that descends through multiple genres on its almost hour-long runtime.
Opening with “Prehistoric Prelude”, an acoustic cut that sounds somewhat familiar to a famous Metallica song with slightly adjusted notes, before launching into what amounts to some fairly standard but still kickass modern thrash riffing. It was a bit unexpected, to say the least, what with the melancholy intro leading into some shit-kicking thrash, but what comes next is definitely more in line with what I thought would be coming.
“Arctic Cemetery” is a much more adventurous progressive metal cut featuring tons of sick riffage from Griffiths while Tommy Rogers of Between the Buried and Me fame provides the vocals. The song is about six and a half minutes in length and transitions between tons of different sections, yet never manages to lose my attention. The way the track shifts and morphs between different parts makes a lot of sense from a songwriting perspective, and I enjoy listening to the thing break down over and over again between these loftier, atmospheric segments and harder, heavier chugging segments. Rogers’ vocal performance on here is also great, as is to be expected from such a seasoned musician. His harsh vocals and clean vocals both add a lot to the different sonic avenues explored on this piece.
With that we come to “Luminous Beings”, another six minute piece featuring tons of awesome instrumentation and guest vocals from ex-Textures vocalist Daniel De Jongh. The song starts out a lot quieter and more atmospheric, embracing the jazzier side of modern progressive metal, before the Jarzombek-esque guitar solo cuts in. The instrumentation on this track is seriously fantastic, with tons of insane fretwork from Griffiths and very complex drumming. Eventually the song transitions into something a bit heavier that heads through the Phrygian scale, giving things a bit more of an ancient and dark vibe, despite De Jongh’s decidedly happy and melodic clean vocals.
The following track, “In Alluvium”, is the first of several tracks on here to eclipse the eight minute mark. As it begins it carries over some of the sonic motifs from the previous track, namely the rhythm, for the first minute or so of its runtime, until changing things up. The acoustic guitar gets reintroduced, as the rest of the stringed instruments engage in some very The Ocean Collective-esque start-stop riffing combined with some very soaring and intense vocals from progressive metal vocalist extraordinaire Devin Townsend. Townsend’s vocals on this song definitely add a lot, as he goes from his quieter and more subdued “new age” voice up into the higher register of his operatic style. It makes this song feel so fucking epic. Combine that with Dream Theatre composer Jordan Rudess offering a ripping keyboard solo and you’ve got a recipe for a prog metal banger that somehow combines King Crimson with Tesseract.
“Dead in the Water” continues the musical journey begun on “In Alluvium”, feeling like a continuation of some of the ideas established on the previous track, still featuring Townsend on the vocals, and progressing as if the elements from “In Alluvium” are breaking down even further. The riffs descend into even more complex passages of start-stop guitar work syncopated with the double bass pedals of the drums while Devin Townsend Project-esque xylophones play over the top of it all.
Up next is “Digging Deeper”, the shortest track on this record until the album’s outro track, “Under Polaris”. This song starts off with some very quiet and atmospheric guitar passages that evoke the feeling of being lost in the Arctic wilderness. It’s very cold, dark and melancholy. This song also stands out for being one of the few non-metal tracks on the record. The drums are either programmed or recorded with an electric kit, giving the song a very electronic or even industrial vibe to it. It feels more like something you’d hear on a synthwave record than on a metal album, though it does evoke the same vibe as interlude tracks from progressive rock albums of yore.
We then come to the longest track on the record, “Tiktaalik”, for which the record is named. This song features some very Townsend-esque riffs on the rhythm track, however when the lead guitar comes in it almost sounds more like something you’d hear from a Finnish melodic death metal band like Wintersun. It’s an insanely catchy guitar hook, which is why it’s a shame it doesn’t stick around for long. But, this song being an instrumental, it does transition into a ton of different segments throughout its runtime. The track even features a Metallica-esque bass solo in its second half.
With “Crawl Walk Run”, we revisit an earlier theme from the record, as “Luminous Beings” featured the lyrics “crawl, walk, run” in its chorus. This song definitely stands out as the heaviest and most thrashy track on the album. The riffs on this song go hard as fuck, and it definitely comes as an intense punch in the face, especially following the loftier and airier songs that preceded this track on the entire rest of the record. This song does not hold back and is one hell of a heavy way to end off this record.
Of course “Under Polaris” is the true ending of this record. If “Crawl Walk Run” was the heaviest assault the record could offer, then “Under Polaris” is the most technically mind-boggling. The track opens with some Behold… the Arctopus-style shredding. Griffiths just goes off with his guitar work here, before the song transitions into a segment where it hearkens back to the earlier motifs of the album. Rogers returns on the vocals while the guitars descend through melodies present on “Arctic Cemetery” before finally regressing to the riff that started the whole thing off on “Prehistoric Prelude”. It’s a cheeky way to end the record, and I’m into it.
This whole thing was mixed and mastered by Adam Getgood, formerly of Periphery fame, who has since made a name for himself in the world of music production, and it certainly shows. This record sounds absolutely massive and embraces the wall-of-sound style heard on both Periphery and Devin Townsend’s modern works. It’s heavy and clear, and while I don’t usually like this production style for other subgenres of metal, for modern progressive metal it’s exactly what I want.
This album is a mesmerizing journey through prehistory, as it lyrically chronicles the species Tiktaalik, the first walking fish, which serves as the link between fish living in the ocean and the diversity of life we see on land in the fossil record. It’s kind of cute in a way, and reminds me of the wonder I experienced when learning about prehistoric life as a kid. It feels like a love letter to that childlike amazement we experience as kids learning about the world before adulthood beats it out of you, and for that I can definitely appreciate it. This record reminds me not to be too cynical about the world, in a weird way, and to remember what it was like to be curious and to discover new things.
Overall this album is fucking fantastic. It’s a serious banger of a record that features tons of catchy hooks and melodies while not sacrificing any of the complexity that progressive metal demands. Griffiths is clearly an insanely talented musician and his ability to snag Between the Buried and Me’s Tommy Rogers and the legendary Devin Townsend for this album was just icing on the cake. Their vocal performances add so much to this already delicious pastry of a record. If you’re a prog metal fan you will do yourself a disservice by not checking this album out. This is one of my favourites of the year thus far.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Awesome
Favourite Tracks:
“Arctic Cemetery”
“Luminous Beings”
“In Alluvium”
“Tiktaalik”
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 