Band: Amplifier | Album: Gargantuan | Genre: Progressive rock, Space rock | Year: 2025
From: Manchester, UK | Label: Rockosmos
For fans of: Devin Townsend’s less metallic stuff, Porcupine Tree, latter-era Beatles
Amplifier is a band that’s been around for a while, and they’ve often skirted the edges of this site’s purview. They’re primarily an alt-rock band, but they frequently include prog, psych, and space elements in their music. I’m especially fond of their 2011 release, The Octopus. Gargantuan is the band’s eighth studio album, and it sees them largely stick to their usual sound, but with a bit more space rock influence than on their last album. Things are grand and huge and often overblown here, but the band pulls it off quite well.
“Gateway” kicks the album off with a dry, buzzy guitar and urgent drumming. The sense of kinetic energy is immediately evident. Despite the urgency of the backing, the vocals are delivered deliberately, with lots of reverb. Big synth lines eventually come to the fore, and there is a strong sense of upward momentum. The overall sound palette is similar on “Invader”, but the mood is a bit more laid-back. It’s got a good groove to it, and I really like the stuttering synths in the background. Vocalist Sel Balamir really reminds me a lot of Steven Wilson on this cut.
A fat and dramatic synth pad opens “Blackhole”, evoking the crushing gravity well. Things float along relatively gently at first, but there is a sense of building urgency. The vocals are haunting, and the tones used for the guitar and synth leads are unsettling. Despite the weight of everything, there are moments of relative lightness. Though relatively long, this song never feels dragged out. It’s a great cut for meditating on a few repeated musical themes. The closing guitar solo has a wonderfully ascendant feel to it.
“King Kong” has a weighty, distorted bassline and a slow, trudging rhythm. Weird guitar and synth embellishments swirl around the central beat. This is another song that’s more about the gradual build than any particular hook or sudden shift. There’s a lot of power and muscle behind this cut.
Amplifier slows things down on “Pyramid”. The deliberate pace and vaguely Middle Eastern scale evoke both the physical pyramids in Egypt, as well as bluesy stoner acts that often use the desert as a motif. Textures are rich and lush, and I really like the sharpness of the lead guitar line. Despite some good ideas, this is the first song on the album to feel a bit longer than it needs to be. It’s certainly not bad, but being concise is something Amplifier simply doesn’t do.
And of course, I comment on the band’s long-windedness right before the shortest song on the album. “Entity” is a weird and exciting instrumental. The bass and guitar are largely harmonized throughout, and I love the twanginess of the bass.
A huge wall of fuzz reminiscent of certain grunge acts flows from the preceding cut to open “Guilty Pleasure”. There are some weird, jazzy elements in the guitar lines, which I like a lot, and the song plows ahead powerfully. Entering the song’s middle section, the atmosphere opens up and becomes broader in contrasting clean and distorted passages. The intensity builds near the song’s end. The distortion on the guitar comes in thicker, and synths add yet more weight.
“Cross Dissolve” has a twangy, echoing guitar arpeggio in its opening. The vocals are pretty strong here, and I really like the wobbly synth tones. Despite sounding nice, this is one of the points where Amplifier’s tendency toward ponderousness crops up. I really like this band’s sound, but they do occasionally struggle to appropriately pace things. I’m sure it’s great live, and it’s not bad if you’re just looking for some chill-out background music. But it doesn’t make for the best active-listening experience.
The album ends on “Long Road”. It has a slow, quiet introduction, and the dreamy mood successfully evokes the feeling of wandering down the titular long road. This cut remains mellow for its whole runtime, and it’s a pleasant way for the album to drift into the ether as it ends.
Gargantuan is a pretty solid record. Amplifier tends to be pretty consistent in their sound, so if you’re into late ‘90s or early ‘00s alt-rock with some spacey leanings, you’ll probably like this. The band does occasionally take too long to make a point, but at least the excesses sound nice.
Score: 81/100
The Elite Extremophile 