“Pointers” on How to be Both Metal and Electronic at the Same Time from The Algorithm

Electronic music and metal have been co-mingling for decades already. My personal introduction came via The Prodigy’s 1997 release The Fat of the Land, but the lord knows by that point Al Jourgensen had already been doing it for 15 years. More recently, the djent scene has made heavy use of electronic elements.

Still, certain metalheads feel a need to shove a stick in the mud whenever bleeps and blips get anywhere within the vicinity of chugs and blasts. “Get that shit out of my metal!” And so I venture that The Algorithm will rub a lot of metalheads the wrong way within just a few seconds of pressing play.

Maybe, then, we should approach today’s feature as electronic music at heart with elements of metal thrown in, rather than vice versa. That way those of us heshers who enjoy electronica from time to time can delight in the combo while allowing metal purists to feel as if their precious genre is safe from infiltration by the computer-driven heathens who simply press buttons and reap in the millions.

So: dig on “Pointers,” the latest video from The Algorithm, aka Rémi Gallego. It’s incredibly complex music, and it’s also decidedly heavy. No, it isn’t for everyone, but those with an open mind about what heavy music can and should sound like will certainly find something to like. It’s also really enlightening to watch a live drummer play this type of music; it underscores the possibilities here, i.e. that electronic music isn’t just a bunch of repetitive, same-sounding beats.

New album Brute Force comes out on April 1st.