2018 Album Retrospective #8: Polyphia - New Levels New Devils
The musical subgenre known as 'math rock' has a relatively short and unremarkable history. Emerging from a confluence of established styles including post-rock, noise rock, and post-hardcore, the term was coined based on how complex and polyrhythmic the music emerging from acts such as Slint was, appearing almost mathematical. While that band's magnum opus Spiderland is probably the most well-known math rock album period, Polyphia's sound is somewhat divorced from Slint's dreary and depressing work.
Sketching a short musical history lesson is helpful to understand where Polyphia emerged from (especially since they previously skewed more towards progressive metal), but it certainly isn't required to understand why New Levels New Devils is as good as it is. Even to the untrained ear, a cursory listen will reveal just how talented these players are. But what makes this a standout math rock release is just how well that talent translates into catchy riffs and grooves.
The aforementioned math rock tropes are here in full force, certainly, but Polyphia have wisely mixed in flavours of jazz rock, djent, and even trap to some of the cuts on this album. A wise decision, certainly, seeing as even a sound as niche as this can get stale quickly without variation. Fortunately, there is more than enough distinction between tracks here to allow the best parts of each to stand out.
Some moments, such as the trap breakdown at the end of O.D., are incredibly blunt in their demonstration of where Polyphia is taking this album's direction. But in the lack of subtlety, the listener becomes aware very early that this is not just a flaunting of fretting skills. And when those more modern sounds show up again, like on So Strange or Rich Kids, it becomes clear just how well-integrated these ideas are into the standard math rock playbook.
Of course, none of this experimentation would work without the musical fundamentals that Polyphia is thankfully providing in spades. The guitar work on every single song is creative, memorable, and (of course) impressively technical, and is consistently complimented by stellar drumming. In fact, one standout facet of the instrumentation is how effectively the percussion evolves to support one stylistic change after another throughout the tracklist.
The bending and shifting of rhythms, paces, and time signatures also lends to some tracks what is, if not a strict jazz rock feel, at least a fluidity and groove that makes listening to Drown or Yas feel all the more physical and evocative. Similarly, passages on Death Note or the opener Nasty feel spacey, almost eerie in how the riffs run wild, supported by spastic solos and the hard-hitting, constant drum beats.
New Levels New Devils also features numerous outside musicians lending their skills to many of the tracks on here, another factor aiding to the diverse and refreshing feel of the music present. Notably, the song So Strange features the sole vocals on the album, provided by singer Cuco in the form of a simple yet catchy chorus, recurring multiple times including at the bass-heavy, almost hip-hop-sounding ending.
Even when the band pulls back on the unorthodox choices, the results are still tightly composed, feeling stunning simply due to how expressively the band structures and executes their ideas. Easily one of the standouts here is Saucy, packing not only a killer riff functioning as a chorus but wild passages in between, the band varying the tone and speed before bringing it all back to the explosive hook.
Sometimes, this album fails to coalesce in an entirely satisfying way, either due to a lack of sticky hooks to latch onto or because of simple fatigue born of more forgettable ideas. Both rear their head prominently on the last two tracks Rich Kids and G.O.A.T., perhaps because by this point New Levels New Devils has exhausted all its tricks. Here the need for fresh ideas is uncomfortably palpable, and the record plods to a somewhat lackluster finish, unfortunately.
It may be unreasonable to laud Polyphia too much for making 'the best math rock album of the year' considering how few people even meddle in that genre. Still, New Levels New Devils is inspiring in how it shows where this niche area of rock music can further be pushed. It's unclear how much of that potential will be realized, from either the band or the genre as a whole, but for now it is still easy to appreciate what we have in front of us. And for what it is, this album is too damn enjoyable to just be ignored.