After Debuting 'Intuition' At UNIFY, Northlane's New Single Is Officially Out

18 January 2017 | 6:51 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

2017 will be sure to see the release of Northlane's fourth album, and considering the success and criticisms that their preceding album 'Node' received, many eyes are upon Northlane to see where they'd go next.

2017 will be sure to see the release of Northlane's fourth album, and considering the success and criticisms that their preceding album 'Node' received, many eyes are upon Northlane to see what they'd be doing next. Well, we are that point now with the full release of their heavy new single, 'Intuition'.

In this song, Marcus Bridge's vocals have finally taken full shape within the band's musical framework, and they fit better. And that was always going to happen, as only time was needed to iron out the kinks and find what works best for him and the band's sound as a whole. The guitars, while not unique, are a step up from their previous album - they still sound like Northlane, of course - but for the band's current particular aesthetic and sound, these guitars are heavy and are most certainly appropriate. While the band's own perspective is that 'Node' and that this new album are "real" records (unlike 'Discoveries' and 'Singularity', apparently), the mix and production is always brought up nowadays when discussing Northlane.

However, the mix itself here is... fine but as a drummer myself, the drums here are still a big point of contention for me, just as they were for 'Node'. While streaming it via YouTube earlier, I noticed that the drums are rather quiet in the mix and they just do not have the full impact that this song calls for. Which is a shame considering how good of a drummer Nic Pettersen is! Although, if you go and use the iTunes preview option or if you simply buy the song outright via that platform, you will find that the song (and the drums) are much louder. So if you're seeing any criticisms of the track's production and mix in your news feed, just keep in mind that YouTube's algorithms have most likely fucked with the dynamic range of this track. Which isn't that uncommon, really. (And this may also be a case of Apple's wish that songs be mastered a certain way before being distributed through iTunes cause we all know how much Apple just loves to help out us consumers, right? Right..?)

Look, if you wanna read an explanation on the band's tracking process and sonic vision of this song, check out this recent Reddit response from the horses mouth - Northlane's Josh Smith.

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The music video's footage was filmed during their UNIFY appearance from last week, where the band also debuted this song live, and the visuals you'll find on screen were filmed by James Killian, Ed Reiss, Warwick Hughes, Thomas Savage, and Neal Walters, among a handful of others present.

In his UNIFY review, our very own Matty Sievers said of the song that, "To me this new song represents hope, hope that this band are now truly coming into their own as songwriters and working as a cohesive unit with Bridge. It just seems so much tighter and self-aware, knowing where exactly to go and what to do to keep the song ebbing and flowing in the best way possible. It actually makes me excited for the future of this band. Wow. I never thought that day would come."

You can stream 'Intuition' below - it ain't half bad!