The Butterfly Effect’s IV is Music Feeds’ Album of the Week. Tiana Speter reviews.
It’s been a massive few years for Aussie alternative fans, with hordes of local bands reforming and recording long after their heydays. From Cog to Sunk Loto and, since a reunion tour back in 2018, Brisbane’s The Butterfly Effect, fans young and old have learned to never say never when it comes to the future of their homegrown favourites.
The Butterfly Effect: IV (Independent)
With 14 years between albums for the Butterfly Effect, IV is a mix of freshly penned material alongside songs written straight after the release of 2008’s Final Conversation Of Kings.
The band’s trademark tenacity comes through on IV, with some of the most commanding moments of their career contained in these 10 tracks. Embracing elements of progressive rock alongside heavier tendencies, IV is both a declaration of unfinished business and a return to form.
Right from opening and title track ‘IV’, The Butterfly Effect’s familiar aesthetic kicks in with a swooning instrumental. A similar ambience bleeds into ‘Dark Light’, with vocalist Clint Boge soaring over the track’s intro before the quartet ramp up into full rock mode.
IV isn’t merely a vessel for The Butterfly Effect to flex their aggressive musicality, however. Classic metal harmonies and bubbling bass lines surge against crashing drum work on ‘Wave Of Tides’, while raw alt-rock riffs leap out of ‘The Other Side’ against Boge’s emphatic vocals.
‘Nil By Mouth’ is a full-on metal song, with Kurt Goedhart’s guitar playing taking fans back to the band’s early years as a caustic Boge declares war on the world’s increasing obsession with cheap fame.
The Butterfly Effect – ‘Nil By Mouth’
The band turn inward on ‘So Tired’, relishing in thematic and emotional excess while detailing their erstwhile life of nonstop writing, recording, and touring. Closing with the lyric, “It’s not over now”, ‘So Tired’ hits hard for anyone who has needed a second chance.
While melancholic notions about the temporary nature of dreams and the passage of time pop up throughout IV, there’s also a feeling of vulnerability. This sense of reflection and acceptance permeates the meditative chant on ‘Wave Of Tides’ and the glistening closer ‘Visiting Hours’, which includes the lyrics, “The plans we devised / The dreams of grandeur / The years have passed me by / Was it worth waiting for?”
With the release of IV, the answer for many fans of The Butterfly Effect will be a resounding yes.
The Butterfly Effect’s IV is out now.
Further Reading
The Butterfly Effect: “I Felt That the Band Was Good Enough to Keep Going”
The Butterfly Effect Announce First Album In 14 Years And National Tour
Muse: ‘Will of the People’ Review – Oozing With Paranoia and Chaos
