Marc Durkee’s latest album has an interesting dynamic. The atmosphere he has created on Remain in Stasis is familiar, but something about his sullen tone, paired with angry guitar riffs and pounding beats, feels like a venture into new territory.
Durkee’s voice is adaptable. His soothing tone seems like it would be right at home on an acoustic track, but when it’s paired with some of the heavier tracks on this album, the result is magic. There’s a beautiful contrast at play, this plays out in a variety of ways throughout the album’s ten tracks.
For the most part, the album is home to deep and introspective lyrics, but early on Durkee switches gears for a bit with an instrumental track, “Mimesis.” It’s one of the lighter tracks, one of the first inklings of a more pop-punk adjacent sound that Durkee slips into at times. Durkee mimics the upbeat guitar present in this track and layers in his earnest crooning on “Redesign (In Stride).”
Durkee has clearly worked hard to deliver a consistent atmosphere on this album, this dark and gloomy environment in which he can tackle the emotional depth of the lyrics he’s written. The path he takes through this environment is anything but linear, however. Right off the bat, we’re hit with powerful prog-rock anthems, but Durkee can just as easily tone it down for haunting ballads. His harmonies on “A Number of Years” are chilling, to say the least.
The album is bulky – many of the tracks are close to five minutes in length. Despite this fact, there doesn’t feel to be any loose ends to be cut or fat to be trimmed. If anything, it just stands to impress, especially since Durkee wrote and produced the album himself. It’s a vibrant display of Durkee’s musical finesse. Just enough toes are dipped into just enough genres that it will leave you satisfied, yet intrigued as to what else he may be able to accomplish.