EPK – Chain Code – Synthetic Outcomes (2024) – Out Oct 1st
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
“I am pleased to finally unleash this labor of love. I started this project in 2022 and manically wrote two albums, fixated on creating paranoid yet beautiful progressive rock to express my enjoyment of dystopian science fiction that sees humanity losing its very essence to machines. The initial point musically was to have Adrian Belew join Voivod in my bizarro musical mind. I feel that this album will find an audience of weirdos who are into this type of music. I don’t think it was written for “average” music fans, as it’s a challenging listen, but there are definitely those on the outskirts of genres who could find meaning in this project. I encourage any weirdo to put on headphones and take a trip to our future with the chaotic elegance of Chain Code!” – MuRphry – Chain Code
For fans of Adrian Belew (King Crimson, Zappa, Talking Heads, solo), Voivod, Primus, with tinges of post-punk (Dead Kennedys, NoMeansNo, Jesus Lizard)
Band: Chain Code
Album Title: Synthetic Outcomes
Release Date: October 1, 2024
Label: Self-Release
Facebook.com/ChainCodeBand | ChainCode.bandcamp.com
“the new track (In Line) is a bold musical statement with one foot in modern progressive technical musical prowess, but with eye on the class and lyricism of the distant past greats of the genre.” – Ghost Cult Magazine
““Synthetic Outcomes” is a deeply satisfying listen if you like your music to be dense, multi-layered and to come with an idea and a concept that the music and the lyrics expand upon. It is spectacularly complex and rewards repeated listens to an egregious degree. It isn’t overpoweringly heavy, but it’s heavy enough to bite you in the arse and it is a challenging listen indeed. Some punters may find it a bit too much to digest in a single sitting, however Dark Juan is made of sterner stuff than that. 9/10″ – Ever Metal
“Murphy is a Milwaukee based musician and his description of Andrian Belew (King Crimson) fronting Voivod is a close description of the brilliance of the debut, Synthetic Outcomes. Bringing his love of science fiction and humor, Murphy’s style is avantgarde and fascinating. “Human” is the album opener and you get that unique approach to progressive metal. “A New Face” shows how catchy this guy can be, but still avantgarde and cool as hell. The bass really stands out (Primus is also an influence) during songs like “They’re Not Mad Scientists” and “Unlearn.” “My Buddy” has that early nineties (The Outer Limits and Angel Rat era) Voivod sound. Chain Code makes “Junk Piles and Their Lonely Owners” memorable with the busy, but repetitious music and really cool technical guitar playing. This is a definitely contender for album of the year.” – Transcending The Mundane
“Progressive rock fans, get ready to be captivated by the latest offering from Chain Code, a unique and complex solo project led by the enigmatic MuRphry who channels his love for prog rock and sci-fi into a potent sonic experience… ‘A New Face’ is a short, yet windy, frantic, and complex song that is as unpredictable as it is catchy.” – The ProgSpace
“Tickling my itch for some dissonant avantgarde stuff this week is “Synthetic Outcomes”, the debut from new US based project Chain Code. This is a “non-stop barrage of syncopation and dissonant tension”, as the press release aptly stated, spearheaded by the enigmatic vocalist/multiinstrumentalist MurPhry, and these nine tracks should present themselves as some welcome grubs for the Voivod/King Crimson/Sleepytime Gorilla Museum/Gargoyl//Shamblemaths crowd. ” The Prog Space
“If System of the Down and Primus had a child, that child would sound like the debut single “A New Face” from Chain Code… With a unique blend of melody, dissonance, and intricately stringed arrangements, Chain Code is set to spin progressive rock on its head not only with their debut single but also with their debut album Synthetic Outcomes” – Amplify The Noise
“As debut albums come, Synthetic Outcomes is quite exceptional… Keep an eye open for this captivating artist, and beware of our computer overlords that are just around the corner waiting to take over for good.” – Disagreemeent.nl
“US band Chain Code are out with the album “Synthetic Outcomes”, and progressive metal is the style explored on this production. That being said, a lot of the heart and the soul of this band appears to revolve around aesthetics from the 1970s, and then from more expressive bands from the progressive rock tradition back then. With plenty of references to King Crimson, possibly also Gentle Giant, and if you know about a band from that era that played around with avantgarde tendencies and whimsical attitudes there’s a good chance that you’ll encounter references in that line too. With a bit of a theatrical display in the vocals department to boot, and some of the flamboyant aspects from the symphonic progressive rock tradition added as a bit of a subtle seasoning. But the band have chosen to explore those landscapes in a metal guise. An understated one at that, but still with metal rather than prog as the expression and orientation of choice. An album to seek out if the idea of exploring expressive 1970s progressive rock in a metal guise strikes you as an appealing proposition.” – Progressor
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Band: Chain Code
Album Title: Synthetic Outcomes
Release Date: October 1, 2024
Label: Self-Release
Track Listing:
1. Human(kind of) (8:12)
2. A New Face (4:42)
3. They’re NOT Mad Scientists (4:16)
4. Unlearn (6:18)
5. My Buddy (3:54)
6. Inadequate (4:27)
7. Junk Piles and Their Lonely Owners (5:16)
8. Reaching Out (7:02)
9. In Line (8:00)
Album Credits:
All songs written and performed by MuRphry.
All songs recorded by MuRphry.
All artwork created by MuRphry with help from Matt Altieri and Arby.
Album mixed and mastered by Dan Klein and Iron Hand Audio, 2024.
Chain Code is MuRphry-all instruments and vocals.
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Describe The Album Artwork:
Each song comes with its own specific piece of art. The art has a lot of robots/cyborgs that have human characteristics. The art/lyrics also observe human insecurity and self-doubt as a driving force for the creation of such technology.
Track by track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY)
1. Human(kind of) seeks to set the album themes up lyrically with its repetition of the word synthetic. It is a song that expresses the idea that humans, while full of good intentions and philosophies, ultimately have a need for destruction. It is the longest song on the album and the only song with a sample in it, taken from a news story about using AI to translate brain scans into text and was chosen as the opener musically because of both its monotonous ending and slow build beginning. It is sort of a unique song on the album structurally, but seemed appropriate as an opener.
2. A New Face concerns the effort and ingenuity that went into designing a technology that eventually comes to encapsulate humanity’s inherent desire for self-destruction and war. This was the first song written for the album and is definitely has some of the best interplay between guitar parts on the album.
3. They’re NOT Mad Scientists not only sees a bit of humor coming into the lyrics but builds off the ideas set forth in A New Face in that good intentions are in place at the onset of creating something destructive. It sets up the idea that the creators put their own insecurities and sadness into their creation, and those are what eventually create the AI’s natural need to eliminate or subjugate humans, an idea that is also found later in the album. The song has a standard enough arrangement(in the context of prog’s fearless embracement of pop), but has a very complex midsection. In spite of that, it is one of the easier-to-grasp songs musically.
4. Unlearn is a song that juxtaposes the parts of a computer with the parts of a human being with the intention of suggesting that human beings can choose to be more than biomechanics. The vs in this song has what is perhaps the most complicated interplay of guitar and bass on the whole album.
5. My Buddy is a humorous song and shamelessly pays homage to the guitar playing of East Bay Ray(Dead Kennedys) in its verse. However, it gives way to something off-kilter at the end. The song starts with the line “The time I’ve wasted with my spy”, a direct reference to human beings being added by the technology they keep in their pockets, making it easier for governments or AI systems to gain power.
6. Inadequate, like A New Face and My Buddy, focuses on how human insecurities trick them into allowing technology to gain a foothold. It’s definitely a slower song on the album, more psychedelic than what comes before it.
7. Junk Piles and Their Lonely Owners was heavily influenced by King Crimson’s Red album. The vs. has a midi Erhu(a Chinese instrument) that is set to mimic the violin playing on the aforementioned Crimson album. This song definitely deals with human mortality more than the other songs. It also deals with intentionally expanding one’s mind in order to not be enslaved by technology.
8. Reaching out and 9. In-Line were heavily influenced by the Marvel character Ultron, an AI machine that both wants humanity and to destroy humanity. Both songs see this character ruminating on the flaws of humanity and how he is essentially in line to surpass humans. He is waiting patiently, collecting data, observing, and finally striking out. Musically both songs have some of the more complex arrangements. In Line begins and ends with a Black Hole Sun(Soundgarden) style oddball heavy and slow, yet beautiful and melodic, riff.
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Fun Facts – Story Angles
1. Despite having many issues with modern Star Wars, I loved The Bad Batch and The Clone Wars enough to take my band name from the SW universe. Chain Code is the term denoted to the identification markers that contain biographical information on an individual. The music was all written and finished before naming the project.
2. All things nerd influence Chain Code, from science fiction movies (Terminator, Robocop, etc) to comic books.
Chain Code is a progressive rock band from Milwaukee, WI. The project was started by sole member MuRphry in 2022 with the sole intention of playing catchy, yet complex, bizarro progressive rock, think Adrian Belew(King Crimson, Zappa, solo, Talking Heads) meets Voivod. The lyrics’ themes center largely around the ever-popular sci-fi idea of technology overcoming human beings. Using a mixture of melody and dissonance, and a barrage of stringed instrument interplay, MuRphry seeks to capture both the beautiful moments and harsh realities of a future ever reliant upon a technology that, as all sci-fi predicts, will overtake a complacent human existence. The debut album, “Synthetic Outcomes”, finds humanity in distress, conquered by the technology they became dependent upon, but the future is left wide open for a human uprising. All weirdos are encouraged to put on headphones and take a trip to our future with the chaotic elegance of Chain Code!
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