Australia’s Plini is one of the more notable proponents of high-quality, home-made tech/djent instrumental metal, and Jack DeMaio, aka one-man operation BlurryCloud, leans in a similarly fleet-fingered direction. He’s based in West Chester, Pennsylvania and Far From The Sea is his first album, which he sees it as ‘an unpredictable adventure filled with sharp twists and turns, but still maintaining a coherent flow’.
While this is a formative work he does achieve that aim, with a heavy, almost math rock approach, smart drum programming and a whole lot of synthesised choral and orchestral sounds. Currents is typical, with eager, heavy guitars, interesting string stabs and one female voice effect he’s keen on throughout. Acres evokes MIDI-metal act The Algorithm; A Convolution is just massive. Yet there is respite in the more textural pieces (the forboding Of Hollow, restrained string piece Far Removed), and calmer moments (the ambient opening of Adrift In Blue, the Blade Runner-esque pub piano of glitchy I Remember You). The most compelling pieces, Strange Things and Auster are in-your-face slabs of heavy, uncompromising guitar riffs’n’runs. For fans of Intervals et al, DeMaio will be a welcome Cloud on the horizon.
