Fusion is always exciting, be it a bit strange at first. At the turn of an age, the scene of all creative expression goes through a symbiosis that ultimately, by deconstructing everything that came before it, reassembles itself into something that seems completely new. Terrence McKenna coined this sort of change as the “Archaic Revival,” a way of taking all old or broken ideas and remixing them with modern failures to fix them, a sort of pastiche. Thus every experience, especially failures, is of vital importance to new philosophical concepts. This also means that the truth is never pretty. For someone who has went to hell and back again, the truth is a road full of twists and turns, deception and temptation that destroys dreams, takes lives and hinders cultural progress. The promise of Return from Broken is revitalization, the ability to see the worst of your insides and survive to become stronger. Matt Soren has composed a fierce, clever culmination of mechanical industrial electro with a progressive sensibility and initiative to fight for survival against his greatest enemy: himself.
Don’t get me wrong and think that this music is masochistic, it is not. It does however deal with subject matter on that level. Anyone who hasn’t abused intoxicants or been close to taking their own life might find the album depressing. On the other hand, those who have been addicted, abused and considered taking their own lives should find this sort of truth refreshing. Soren’s ability to see through the pain and dream of ways to defeat the inner critic, though very glib in subject matter, are conceptually positive in outlook. That being said, Matt is not yet fully recovered from his treacherous past, perhaps in a more vulnerable place then before. Taking such a risk to share these thoughts is honorable. Many of the songs deal with the moment we virtually all get stuck in, perhaps the moment of creation, or right before. It is that place where you begin to make something wonderful, be it art, music, or anything creative, where the inner critic decides that everything is wrong, that the world is ending, that we’re worthless and every old problem starts to eat at the soul. Songs like Broken start out in an intellectual quagmire, as Matt despairs “I still can’t let go, even though it’s the one thing holding me down.” But by the end, he is talking sense, explaining the problems, asking for help and more importantly, planning a future that isn’t desolation for its own sake.
Much of the album is depressing; reaching to the interpersonal depravity that is familiar in early Nine Inch Nails, both is musical form and lyrical subjectivity. However, the majority of it is too personal. A perspective so inside one’s own life experience is a bit egomaniacal. After a while, I simple have to tune out all the “I”s and “you”s simply for sanity and utilitarian use in everyday life. The advice Soren offers is actually quite good when applied objectively and externally. When his ideas are inwardly projected, it is quite easy to feel a sort of pseudo-sadness that is the illusion of caring, but honestly more like self-pity, loathing, and a sort of distrust of self that always comes with poetry too inwardly driven. The poems are quite good applied to others who are in need. It will be refreshing to here Matt move beyond the self-obsessed problems to some of the real issues we face as a society. Until then, I am sorry to say, that most of these are love songs! They may be detached, unromantic, technically difficult love songs, but initially most of the writing is centered on whomever the special “you” he is singing about, actually is. Many times this magical romance solves the darker problems. Drug addicts often refer to their substance of choice with such regard, and that is where one can identify just how intense of a problem dependency is. The illusion that a substance can solve problems is a message that billions of people are in denial of and need to hear. This is a difficult message to deliver, harder to create, and we have lost many great artists to it. Even though the truth hurts sometimes, this is fighting the good fight. Those whom have never experienced what he is talking about, take something you do all day everyday and simply stop; for instance, stop eating gluten or watching TV for the rest of your life and let Matt know how easy it was. Then let us assure you, the unnamed substances he is referencing are even more difficult to refuse. It almost always takes a complete lifestyle change, and Return from Broken is a multimedia journal of that sort of resolution to health.
Striking piano parts provide moments of unexpected warmth. The song Surrender gradually wells up with subtle synthesis supporting the piano that builds until small chimes and mellifluous strings. As the lyrics relinquish, “You know how desperately I tried, and it never was enough,” one wants to stay in the beauty of the moment, forever listening to more and more of this building symphonic beauty, but it’s impossible. Vocally Matt Soren is very interesting, as some sort of cross between Trent Reznor (NIN) and Maynard Keenan (Tool) but less polished and with far less vocal breath support. Soren’s raspy sort of whispers couldn’t be better, but the strong sustained power-house wailing of the aforementioned artists is rarely found. Some meditation, voice lessons or whatever could go a long way for improving the ferocity of his sound. A couple of the slides between notes do not resolute as quickly as they should either. However, when Soren does get off it is only for seconds and then he is right back in his comfort zone again, a sort of droning baritone. A higher technical difficulty in the vocals would breath even more life into these songs. But you have to hand it to the guy, as he is the only band member and doing many times the work of a standard vocalist with a band supporting them. In that light, his singing is already better then most front-men. The impeccability of the instrumentals indicates that Soren doesn’t have much work to do to get everything fine tuned. He just needs to hold our a few notes longer and really belt his voice (safely) on a few of the harder songs. It is really cool when his voice is going through the effect processor and hits choruses like an electric guitar, favoring more of an alternative singing style.
The subtlety of Return from Broken is empowering and heart-breaking in the same instance. If it wasn’t for the concept of returning from this state strong, the album would be a collection of threnodies. It is funny how much a title can matter. If I didn’t know Soren’s ultimately positive outlook, say for example this album had been named merely Broken, it would be difficult to accept such negative observations. But that is what is truly inspiring about Matt Soren; after seeing such despair in the world, after seeing the worst, one must go on, get stronger, and figure out some sort of solution. Naturally then, the album starts off dismal which may throw some people off at first, but this conceptual album requires your attention start to finish to get the positivist perspective. The ending is a very rewarding journey worth the time and emotional hardship. Soren has done something nearly impossible that all great artists must do. He has been to the bottom and now on the way up he is inspiring others to lift themselves out of despair and forge their own happiness.
Reviewed by Julian Gorman
