Album Review: The Algorithm - 'Polymorphic Code'

24 November 2012 | 4:02 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Metal meets electronica

More The Algorithm More The Algorithm

It's not often that someone comes along with a style so distinctive that a new genre has to be invented to describe it, but French producer Rémi Gallego, AKA The Algorithm, has come pretty close. His music is part dance and part metal (the djenty side), so, electronic djent?


Perhaps we're not quite ready for that. His sound is groundbreaking, however, and his new LP 'Polymorphic Code' has just been released on Basick Records, possibly one of the more forward-thinking labels in the progressive metal world.


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The simplest way to describe 'Polymorphic Code' is a combination of dance beats, metal breakdowns and aggressive techno synths. Opening track 'Handshake' builds from an ambient intro into a glitchy djent drop, before morphing into a techno track. This is a fairly consistent technique used throughout the album as a way of tying two separate styles together.


Gallego explores other electronic styles in 'Bouncing Dot', such as ambient dubstep and euphoric trance, but always injects these sections with big metal guitars. Think Enter Shikari style interludes, but the whole album is like this.


'Access Granted' features a mellow dub break, and then climaxes in the much-maligned genre known as speedcore. Luckily the more obnoxious forms of dance music are used sparingly, and the overall sound is rooted in techno, but even pure electronic sections still sound like metal. This is an album of heavy music, but synthesisers are just as important as guitars in achieving heaviness.


The digital vibe that permeates 'Polymorphic Code' not only sounds good, but also suits the concept perfectly. Anyone who has played the cult PS2 game Rez will recognise the story of a hacker's journey through a digital frontier.


'Warp Gate Exploit' features a breakdown that will have listeners convinced of Gallego's skill as both a producer and a guitarist. The album is rounded off with 'Panic', a brooding, dystopian techno jam that climaxes like a good boss battle should.


Rémi Gallego is uncompromising and consistent in his approach to music. He combines the clinical precision of Meshuggah, the melodramatic, electronic playfulness of Enter Shikari, and the in-your-face attitude of fellow French glitch/metal producer A.I.(d).

'Polymorphic Code' is the sound of a man dedicated to a singular musical ideal, one that blurs the distinction between two genres, and its execution is matched by its ingenuity. Rémi Gallego has found the meeting point of metal and electronica, presenting them as two sides of the same coin.

1. Handshake

2. Bouncing Dot

3. Trojans

4. Access Granted

5. Logic Bomb

6. Warp Gate Exploit

7. Null

8. Panic