Album Review: Godsticks – Inescapable

Across five albums and 12 years, South Wales’ Godsticks have slowly become a staple of prog-metal, standing alongside such luminaries as Porcupine Tree and The Pineapple Thief (of whom vocalist/guitarist Darran Charles was a member).

Inescapable follows on from the success of 2017’s Faced With Rage, and possesses similarly emotionally volatile lyrical content. However, the band have also found something of a sweet spot here, with Darran’s voice growing in confidence, and the enormity of the instrumentals bolstering things further.

The twitchiness of the guitars are everything you’d expect from a prog album, while erratic basslines and metallic percussion add the slightest hint of nu-metal into the mix. Indeed, among the invention, there’s something recognisable here. It’s as though Godsticks have tapped into metal from the early 2000s, creating a sense of nostalgia, but giving it an intriguing polish to bring it up to date.

Verdict: 3/5