Embedded Files
THE RETICENT “please”
THE RETICENT “please”
By Colonel Angus
After a five year gap, THE RETICENT are back with a new opus called please (with a lower case “p”). For those of you who don’t know of the band, it is basically a one-man show compliments of Chris Hathcock. Sure there are a couple of musicians that round out the band but Hathcock writes, and plays pretty much everything on the disk except for lead guitar work courtesy of James Nelson. Hell, Hathcock even produces and engineers the record so it is safe to say that this is his vision and his vision alone.
Much like the previous record “The Oubliette”, this one continues with delving into some really depressing topics. While that album was a journey through Alzheimer's disease (it was a concept record), this one delves into mental illness and suicide. Both releases make for “heavy” listening as there is a lot of melancholy within these ten tracks. For the listener, there is so much to unpack both musically and lyrically that you could not use this disk as background music while you did other things. This release demands your undivided attention as I’m sure Hathcock designed it to be just that.
Although it is ten tracks, there are really only six tunes with the other four being narrations to not only tell the story but build additional drama to the already dramatic record. After the first brief narration, things really kick in with “The Concealment (Those Who Don't Want to Wake)” which is this wonderfully chaotic prog metal piece. Building on the idea that we think we are alone but in reality, we are surrounded by people with the same thoughts, this one starts off strong but continues to build to a climactic end. “The Night River (Those Who Can't Rest)” starts off with some dialogue about sleep deprivation but quickly jumps into another prog metal track that contains some cool production techniques (certain sounds go from right to left) making this one perfect for headphones. I also like the inclusion of a little bit of a black metal snippet added to the middle to give this track another flavor.
The narration continues with “Diagnosis 1” but then “The Bed of Wasps (Those Consumed with Panic)” provides the heaviest moment on the record. Relying heavily on black and death metal, the title almost gives away the whole vibe of the song although the sound of wasps drives that home pretty well too. If a panic attack could be constructed into music, this would be the soundtrack. By far, the heaviest moment on “please”. Quite honestly “The Scorn (Those Who Don't Understand)” is more my speed as this one has more melody and groove. I like that while there is a lot going on in the track, there is this cool groove throughout that is almost a lifeline when things start to get a little chaotic.
Musically, we get something a little different on “The Riptide (Those Without Hope)”. The foundation to this tune is keyboards with some guitar and vocals on top to add additional color. During most of the track we get this undercurrent sound of water and waves and almost the vastness of the ocean. All of this plays well with the lyrics that deal with depression and how, like a riptide, it can pull you away from shore. Aside from another narration song, the record’s last true song “The Chance (Those Who Let Go)”starts off with some acoustic guitars and almost a hopeful vocal. Lyrically, it is still depressing as hell and although it tries to come up with a different perspective, the subject of suicide can never have a positive spin.
As I mentioned earlier, this is not an easy listen and if you wanted to play something to get you hyped for the weekend, look for another album. But if you are looking for something to contradict your preconceived ideas on mental illness, then look no further because “please” will challenge you both musically and lyrically.
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