Thank You Scientist's lab rock

You could possibly generate earthquakes with this band’s music cranked at high volume. It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard, unless you listen to the Beatles and Kansas and Genesis and the Mars Volta and Frank Zappa all at the same time. Thank You Scientist has all of that going for it, and then some. The self-described seven-headed monster is out on the road now, working in support of their first label release, the aptly titled Stranger Heads Prevail. A listen gives the sense that Thank You Scientist is an intense band, deep and purpose-driven to make this frenzied music of off-tempo changes and unpredictably metered jazz/metal/prog-rock/classical fusion.

The band’s guitar player, Tom Monda, started Thank You Scientist eight years ago with sax player Ellis Jasenovic and a trumpet player named Andrew Digrius while they were all still at Montclair State University in New Jersey. It wasn’t obvious at first, I suppose, but the three classmates shared a common musical vision. In time, the founding trio would add Salvatore Marano on vocals, bassist Colby McCorry, Odin Alvarez on drums, and violinist Ben Karas. But there’s more: collectively, they play 20 instruments.

Right out of the starting gates, the music press loved Thank You Scientist. Revolver magazine highlighted their debut self-release Maps of Non-Existent Places as their Album of the Week in 2014. The front man in the metal-ish band Coheed and Cambria, Claudio Sanchez, he dug them too, and he signed Thank You Scientist to his own boutique record label Evil Ink. By now, the industry wheels were turning at high speed for Thank You Scientist. With studio time and money, they were able to marshal their creative forces and produce some remarkable and entertaining music. But for the life of me, I have no idea what genre bag to put it all into. Is this the Next Big Thing in Metal? Or?

Consider the Source also performs.