Indifferent Engine’s full length debut-effort Speculative Fiction kicks off with The Waiter’s woozy, hypnotic synth line and drifting, distant vocals with only the occasional, momentary detuned tweak as a hint of the chaos to follow, and follow it does with a thunderous heft of bass and crashing, cacophonous conclusion before launching into matters proper with Crashing Into A Hillside In The Dead Of Night, a tremolo-filled statement of intent that moves effortlessly between fury and falsetto-reprieve.

Lifetime Achievement Award is one of the album’s standout tracks, feeling as it does like a swirling homage to One Armed Scissor, all punchy-guitars and machine-gun drumming

Pylon Cult’sbass-lead grooves and the opening section of Bitcrush pull the sonic throttle back ever so slightly, (though the creaking, emotional intensity of the singer rarely relents throughout) before launching back into a screeching frenzy for the latter’s denouement.

Wormholes serves as the album’s mid-point breather, a drum-less ethereal effort ending on  sparse, hanging piano notes and low rumbles which lead straight into Modern fierce opening; it is here where the influence of the more widescreen of Deftones’ offerings shines through most notably before transitioning to a more traditional post-rock-esque conclusion.

Crescents pulls things straight back to an aggressive, angular assault, which seems at times almost relentlessly rushed, serving as a suitable counterpoint to the moments of release afforded prior to it. Verdigris then opens and closes with such moments, but springs to life at the middle with possibly the album’s meatiest intertwining of guitar and bass.

So to the album’s close; Primrose & Acetate carries on much in the same vein as previous efforts, serving to bring together all the elements offered throughout into an appendix of sorts. The Captain then see us out with anguished cries against a backdrop of washed out guitars and the metronomic, heartbeat-like fade of a solitary drum.

Speculative Fiction serves a suitable manifesto for Indifferent Engine’s intriguing brand of futurism-inspired, dreamy post-hardcore.

Review by Gareth Roberts

Release date: May 30, 2025
Label: Church Road Records