Scientist – 1010II0101

Reviewing Scientist’s 2nd album here, and I fucking love this thing.  2015 in the house!

After a night of heavy drinking, Neurosis’ “Through Silver in Blood” went to the titty bar to see if he can get lucky.  He stumbles into the dark, nasty club and orders another drink… a whiskey sour on the rocks then has a seat near the stage.  The final dancer of the night appears from behind the curtain, which just happens to be Mastodon’s “Remission”.  Clearly you can see that Remission has had a tough night, her tired body doing her whole pole spinning thing, half-assed.  Silver does not seem to mind though, he is clearly enjoying her performance.  Remission notices this and smiles.  After her dance was over, she picked  up the few singles that were thrown on the stage for her like a homeless man scraping up a handful of loose change to save up for the next Mad Dog 20/20 fix.  She comes back out and tries to get a dance out of Silver.  Silver manages to sweet talk her ass right out of the club and to the closest mirrored wall skank motel.  The night is over after a couple hours of business time.  Silver and Remission part ways, and a couple of weeks later Remission finds out that she is pregnant with Silver nowhere to be found.

The Child grows up to be an introverted problem child with daddy issues and ADHD, but once he gets into school, everyone starts to realize that this kid is a genius….  and this kid’s name is “1010II0101”.  Now all of this seems like this is a bad review, on the contrary it is quite the opposite.  They say that the smartest people on the planet are crazy… In this case, Scientist are absolute lunatics.

Let’s take a look at some of the best tracks on “1010II0101”  We will start with Seige/Capture/Control, a powerhouse that clocks in just under 10 minutes.  Almost everyone that contributed to this album is on this bad boy… so many vocals from so much Chicago talent.  I love the pace of this song, it starts slow, then speeds itself up with each of its 3 parts, then ends with an amazing groove.  Next up is my personal favorite, The Lighthouse, with Anthony Cwan lending his angelic pipes to this track.  Totally has a Deftones-y vibe to it as if the Deftones spent a week listening to nothing but doom/sludge metal.  To me, this track is the highlight of my current existence.  I’ve spun that song nearly 100 times.  “Limb” is a very serene track.  It was written by Eric Plonka right after the passing of one if his dogs.  I love this track because it revisits Scientist’s first album which was almost all instrumental.  It makes you feel like you are sitting in a hospital waiting room waiting for bad news.  “Physician Heal Thyself” has vocals from Stavros Giannopoulos, whose one of a kind haunting screeches just cannot be compared to.  The cool thing about this track, is that no one from Scientist knew how this song was going to sound like until the very last minute.  Stavros literally handed in his vocals on the date it was due.  Can’t rush perfection though, because this song completely will tear your ears straight off.  

Holy shit, I cannot believe how insanely good this album is.  I’ve been a fan of Scientist from the beginning and I am so proud of how this band has evolved.  Eric Plonka and Patrick Auclair are on guitars, Mathew Milligan on bass, and Justin Cape beating those drums, along with a slew of help from awesome Chicago metal vocalists like Andre Almaraz (Pale Horseman), Anthony Cwan (Without Waves), Stavros Giannopoulos (The Atlas Moth), and James Clayton Bowman (Fireisborn).  This album WILL get attention, and this is great news for the Chicago metal scene.   With so many great musicians lending their talent to this album, it is very hard for this not to be the one of the best releases of 2015.  

I recently interviewed Eric, Patrick, and Mathew of Scientist on the Rock in Chicago Show.  We chatted about “1010II0101”, amongst other things and had a grand ole time. 

Check out the 3rd track from “1010II0101”, The Lighthouse here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvEpYTYlU8Q