Last month, Polyphia announced their first album in four years, Remember That You Will Die, and previewed the forthcoming effort by dropping the rage beat-inspired romp, Neurotica.
Now – as he did with the album’s lead single, Playing God – Tim Henson has dropped a stripped-back, unplugged performance of Neurotica, for which he has once again called upon his custom Ibanez Talman nylon-string acoustic electric guitar.
He’s swapped one snazzy Ibanez for another – the music video saw him and Scott LePage wield radical custom axes courtesy of artist Nusi Quero – but the results are identical. As one would expect from a Henson performance, every note is hit with surgical precision; every lick executed with elite composure.
Though the track itself was recorded on electric guitar, the acoustic brings a neat new dynamic alternative to Neurotica, with the snappy nylon-strings bouncing off the ‘board for an additional layer of percussion and the harmonics offering more aggressive peaks.
It’s yet another demonstration of why Henson is considered one of today’s foremost progressive guitarists, showcasing both his technical abilities and evergreen creativity. Of course, there are some truly insane lead lines in there, but there are also a range of octave and chord-based exchanges.
The magic happens when Henson intricately weaves all these pieces together and assembles his six-string sonic tapestry. We can’t imagine how long it would take to learn each individual section, let alone put them together in a cohesive performance. The Neurotica tabs are available for $3 on Polyphia’s website for those of you brave enough to try it.
After two singles and two unplugged performance videos, we’re starting to wonder if Henson plans on releasing an acoustic version for every track on Remember That You Will Die. A track list hasn’t been officially announced so we can’t say for certain how many that would be, but it’s a pretty darn exciting prospect.
It’s also another sighting of the elusive Ibanez Talman acoustic, of which few details have been shared. When Henson and LePage first revealed them in the Playing God music video, it was speculated the model would be unveiled as a new signature guitar at NAMM 2022.
That didn’t happen, but we’re still holding out hope that we get a more up-close-and-personal look at the game-changing Talman in the near future.
Remember That You Will Die is available to preorder now, though no release date has yet been announced.
