Intronaut

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Intronaut
Intronaut.jpg
Intronaut live in 2013
Background information
Origin Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres Progressive metal, post-metal, sludge metal, avant-garde metal
Years active 2004–present
Labels Century Media, Translation Loss, Goodfellow, Lifeforce, Metal Blade
Members
Sacha Dunable
Dave Timnick
Joe Lester
Website metalblade.com/intronaut/
Intronaut is an American progressive metal band from Los Angeles, California, that
incorporates complex polyrhythms, progressive rock, and jazz.[1]

Contents
1 Biography
2 Musical style
3 Members
3.1 Timeline
4 Discography
4.1 Studio albums
4.2 EPs
4.3 Singles/music videos
4.4 Appeared on
5 References
6 External links
Biography
Intronaut formed in 2004, and their initial line-up included guitarist/vocalist
Sacha Dunable, guitarist/vocalist Leon del Muerte, drummer Danny Walker, and
bassist Joe Lester.

In 2005, Intronaut released a four-track demo entitled Null – Demonstration

Extended Play Compact Disc. They signed to Goodfellow Records in October and
recorded Void in early April 2006 at Shiva Industries in Santa Ana, California with
producer John Haddad. Void represented the first songwriting effort featuring the
band as a whole, as Dunable had written much of the material for Null prior to the
other members joining the band.[2]

In August 2007, guitarist/vocalist Leon del Muerte left the band to focus on Murder
Construct and was replaced by Dave Timnick. Shortly thereafter Intronaut toured
Europe for the first time in support of The Ocean.

In January 2008, the band announced that they had signed a worldwide deal with
Century Media Records and completed their next album, Prehistoricisms.[3] As the
album was the first without del Muerte - whom the band described as their "metal
riff guy"[4] - Prehistoricisms took on a more rhythmic quality that was exemplified
by the double-drummer ending of "Any Port".[4] They also recorded a cover of
Eyehategod's "Dixie Whiskey" for Century Media's twentieth anniversary covers
album.

In April 2009, Intronaut toured with Kylesa and Mastodon.[5] Later that year, in
October 2009, Intronaut played several shows in Kolkata and Pragati Maidan, Delhi
for the Great Indian Rock Festival XIII.
In the summer of 2010, Intronaut released their third full-length album, Valley of
Smoke, featuring a guest appearance from Justin Chancellor from Tool. The album was
characterized by increased use of melody and pitched singing, as well as more
concise songs.[6] In late 2010, Intronaut opened for Cynic on the "Re-Traced/Re-
Focused Tour" of North America. Shortly thereafter, Intronaut completed another
North American tour opening for Helmet.

In mid-2011, Intronaut toured Europe with The Ocean and Red Fang, then toured North
America with Animals as Leaders, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, and
then toured Europe again with Ghost Brigade and A Storm of Light.

In early 2012, Intronaut supported Tool on the first leg of their North American
tour.[7] After the tour, they commenced writing for their fourth studio album,
Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones),[8] which was released on March
19, 2013.[9] In April 2014 they supported TesseracT in their North American tour,
as well as serving as the live backing band for one man progressive outfit
Cloudkicker's live debut.[10]

In 2018, Intronaut fired their drummer, Danny Walker, following allegations of

domestic abuse.[11]

Musical style
Intronaut's sound is influenced by a wide variety of genres, with songs frequently
transitioning from heavy distorted portions into ambient jazz-infused soundscapes.
The guitar work is based around distorted and sometimes fuzzed tones. Guitar parts
include anything from driving head-banging riffs to dissonant ones. Various metal
genres are represented in Intronaut's songs. These genres include heavy metal,
stoner metal, post-metal, and sludge metal. Bass guitar is a prominent feature of
Intronaut's sound, often serving as the primary melodic component of certain riffs.
The use of fretless bass guitars on numerous songs adds to the prominence of bass
guitar in Intronaut's songs and reflects the influence of jazz, a genre in which
fretless bass guitar is common, on the band's sound. Intronaut's songs frequently
shift between intense metal sections and jazz-inspired ambient sections. These
jazz-inspired passages employ jazz chord shapes and tones with heavy reverb to
create ethereal breaks from their more intense riffs. Vocal tones include
screaming, growling, and melodic singing, often featuring elaborate harmonies. The
drum performances focuses heavily on polymeters and polyrhythms, typical of the
jazz, progressive, and various metal genres that influence Intronaut's sound.
Intronaut often incorporate more experimental, psychedelic passages into their
songs as well, utilizing unique instruments such as sitars and hand percussion.

Intronaut have frequently been compared to other progressive oriented sludge metal
acts such as Mastodon and Baroness, though the band members have denied that the
latter was ever a significant influence on their sound. A marked stylistic change
came when clean vocals were introduced on their album Valley of Smoke. Intronaut's
clean vocals, consisting largely of harmonisations between guitarist/vocalists
Dunable and Timnick, has frequently been compared to Alice in Chains. Habitual
Levitations used clean vocals almost exclusively and was also largely devoid of the
band's earlier extreme metal influences, drawing comparisons to acts such as
Deftones, Hum, Oceansize, Tool, and Alice in Chains. The release of the album The
Direction of Last Things marked the return of more aggressive vocal styles and
other extreme metal elements, while retaining the more melodic sensibilities of
their previous two albums. The album also experimented with elements of math rock,
particularly on "In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing".

Members
Current
Sacha Dunable – guitar, vocals (2004–present)
Joe Lester – bass (2004–present)
Dave Timnick – guitar, vocals, tabla, additional percussion (2007–present)
Former
Leon del Muerte – guitar, vocals (2004–2007)
Danny Walker – drums, samples (2004–2018)
Session musicians
Alex Rudinger – drums (2019)

Timeline

Discography
Intronaut discography
Studio albums 6
EPs 3
Studio albums
List of studio albums, with selected chart positions
Year Album details Peak chart positions
US
Indie.
[12] US
Rock
[13] US
Hard
Rock
[14] US
Heat.
[15]
2006 Void
Released: August 23, 2006
Label: Goodfellow
— — — —
2008 Prehistoricisms
Released: September 1, 2008
Label: Century Media
— — — —
2010 Valley of Smoke
Released: October 12, 2010
Label: Century Media
— — — 20
2013 Habitual Levitations
(Instilling Words with Tones)
Released: March 19, 2013
Label: Century Media
37 — 14 10
2015 The Direction of Last Things
Released: November 13, 2015
Label: Century Media
15 29 7 3
2020 Fluid Existential Inversions
Released: February 28, 2020
Label: Metal Blade
— — — —
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
EPs
Null - Demonstration Extended Play Compact Disc (2005, self-released)
Null (2006, Goodfellow)
The Challenger (2007, Translation Loss)
Singles/music videos
"Australopithecus" (2008)
"Elegy" (2010)
"Sunderance" (2011)
"Milk Leg" (2013)
"Harmonomicon" (2013)
"Fast Worms" (2015)
"Sul Ponticello" (2016)
"Cubensis" (2019)
"Speaking of Orbs" (2020)
Appeared on
Like Black Holes in the Sky: A Tribute to Syd Barrett (2008, Dwell) "Arnold Layne"
Covering 20 Years of Extremes (2009, Century Media) "Dixie Whiskey"