Playing some sort of combination of punk and hard rock with touches of stoner and metal, Invitro is storming the shelves and trying to take over your mind!
Their debut release, When I Was a Planet, sounds to be on the verge of fertilizing your ears with an infectious sound that cannot be categorized. All this while they perform their musical operations in lab coats and tin foil. I think that about covers it.
To be honest, I am still in the midst of forming an opinion about these guys. The sound is definitely unique, slightly odd, and I cannot really compare them to anyone else at the moment.
The only problem is that being different, unique, and odd can be very different things from actually being good. Being good is something I am not sure can be applied to Invitro.
The band definitely has an absurdist sense of humor in their approach. In a way, Invitro would likely be at home in the animated realm of Dethklok (Metalocalypse). For example, check songs like "King" with its talk of Burger King and "Comb Over Party" whose name alone brings up images of a skullet. Combine that with a frenetic pace and energy that is all over the map. For as middling as the final product may be, the energy is downright infectious. It is that energy which really saved it for me. It was not without some effort that it saved it in my eyes from being a train wreck of weirdness for weirdness sake.
On my first pass through, I wasn't quite sure what to think of it. Was this supposed to be taken seriously? What kind of music was it? It seemed like they were playing random parts with no frame of reference to put it into. That is likely the point. This is music played with no intentions of buying into any type of corporate plan for success or pandering to suits in order to make a buck.
Article comments
1 - LADY KILLER
I am just curious why the "MOVIE GUY" is rating MUSIC?!!!!! Although I agree that the energy of INVITRO is downright infectious....why would a critic try to bash a talented group of guys that are ORIGINAL and creating a brand of rock that is not yet available to the mainstream. I'm sure that many critics said the same about NIRVANA when all that was available on the radio was a bunch of hairbands....I welcome a fresh new take on music, thank god that a band has finally found a recipe that works!!!! Congratulations INVITRO your one of the best things to come out of rock in a long long time!!!!!
2 - Chris Beaumont
I may be known mostly as a movie guy, but I do a lot of music as well. And just because I did not love it, why do you say I am "trying" to bash them? I never "bash" anyone. I review what I hear. Invitro isn't bad, but not quite focused enough yet. There is no way that these guys can be compared to Nirvana. I may not be a Nirvana fan boy, but they mean much more to music than Invitro ever will.