The Contortionist covers a lot of ground in music

A lot of ground gets covered on "Monochrome (Passive)," the first song on Clairvoyant, the latest album from prog metal outfit The Contortionist.

The track opens with a fuzzy keyboard and thunders to life with crashing guitars and drums. Then, right at about the two-minute mark, the tsunami subsides and the instrumental track instantly eases into a bright, jazzy stretch before then kicking into something that sounds like a clip from a science-fiction flick before coming to a close.

It's an intriguing introduction to the eight other songs that make up Clairvoyant (and is revisited in part at the end with "Monochrome (Pensive)," an album of brooding, moody metal that metalinjection.net called "the sextet's most unified and touching to date."

The Contortionist -- guitarists Robby Baca and Cameron Maynard, singer Michael Lessard, keyboardist Eric Guenther, drummer (and Robby's brother) Joey Baca and bassist Jordarn Eberhardt -- are playing with headliners Nothing More of San Antonio on Saturday at the Metroplex in Little Rock. Big Story and Kirra round out the bill.

This is the 30-year-old Lessard's second album with the band, which he joined in 2013 and which has been around since 2007. In the early days, the group was a bit more aggressive, with growling vocals from former singer Jonathan Carpenter.

Over the past two efforts, starting with 2014's Language, the six-piece has expanded its swirling, multilayered sound and Lessard's vocals are more traditional.

"For the most part, I think that's just naturally what happens when you're progressing as a human," Lessard says from his home in Waldoboro, Maine. "Your taste changes in music. When the band started, all the guys were 16-17. The first album they put out was music from that era. As you know, from 16 to 30, a lot of changes happen, not only musically but as a person."

The Contortionist's lineup is sprinkled about the country, with members living in Indiana, Georgia, Colorado and, of course, Maine.

How does the group collaborate and prepare for tour? It's not that big a deal, says Lessard last month, while getting ready to meet up with his bandmates in Indiana: "We take two weeks before tour to plan out our set list. Everybody rehearses on their own, then we all show up and we play the set for two weeks and get prepared that way."

For Clairvoyant, which came out in September, most of the band lived together for a month in a cabin in Maine to write and make demos before entering the studio, Lessard says.

The Contortionist's stop in Little Rock is the first of this tour with Nothing More.

"We've done so much touring in the last four years that it's just second nature now," Lessard says. "For the first show, there's always some butterflies, but then you roll with it. After that first show, it's all gravy."

The first week of a touring cycle usually sets the tone for the entire trek, he says: "The way you approach the first week is essentially what your life is going to be like for the remainder of that tour."

If Lessard gets into a habit of writing, working out and being productive before shows, then touring becomes a much easier beast.

"If I sleep in and I'm napping all day, then it's harder," he says.

And while the other band members are a disparate bunch, with diverging interests, "we all get along and really enjoy making music and art."

It's a good thing, because the road beckons. After this late-winter run with Nothing More, Lessard and the other Contortionists will lead their own tour and then take off for Down Under.

"The Nothing More tour is just under a month, then we do about a month as a headliner," he says. "We take a month off and then head to Australia for a tour down there."

Weekend on 02/01/2018