This band of former members of Prayer for Cleansing, Azazel, Undying, and Bury Your Dead returns with another full-length of polished modern metalcore that's even more fucked up and bizarre this time than it was before. Their last record was somewhat unique in both the band's impressive musical abilities and their wider than usual range of influences in an otherwise generic cut and paste metalcore format. But this time the writing is a bit more streamlined and easy to follow, though it's just as technical and over the top, plus they're now bringing in progressive rock/metal, jazz, and other influences that actually get quite promising on occasion. Hell, some of the complex riffs even have a Cynic/Atheist thing happening, there are some very scarce southern sludge rhythms, and the bass work is generally excellent. There are tons of fucked up time signatures and rhythmic shifts, lots of thrashy death metal riffs and pinch harmonics, some excellent jazzy clean breaks and lead runs, slick dual guitar harmonies (and not in an Iron Maiden way), etc. And talk about some really fucked up vocal work, from straightforward screams to some indecipherably garbled cackling, smooth singing, low growls, hyper distorted shrieks... madness. Of course, on rare occasion they go too far - I mean, what the fuck is up with the handclaps that pop out of nowhere in "Lost Perfection a) Coulrophobia"? And those cheesy electronic blips and beeps that introduce "Destructo Spin"? But for the most part this is really creative work that requires a high level of proficiency to perform this tightly. "Mordecai" is exactly where they need to go: A very progressive and developed track, unifying their diversity into an interesting and powerful track that emphasizes their melody without taking away from the aggression or quirkiness of the writing. Excellent. The succinct "Reaction" and "(Shevanel Take 2)" also unite to create a nice direction, using ambient sounding experimental guitar textures to create a lush and spacious backdrop for the softly sung vocals, eventually fading into acoustic guitars, bass, and drums. And "Aesthetic" is basically a technical death metal track... right to the point. The production is pretty good. I think the mix needs some tweaking, but other than that I'm okay with it. I think the vocals can be too loud and abrasive, and the cymbals are sort of thin and loud as well, so as chunky as the guitars are, that heaviness can shift to the middle when the vocals and drums cut to the front. I think the drums are a bit punchy, but aside from that, I think I'd leave things as is and just alter the levels. The guitar and bass tones are great, it's just a matter of details slipping past in the craziness of it all. The layout looks great. Few colors are used, the design is simple and abstract, everything is consistent, the text is tiny and crisp, etc. The lyrics are a mixed bag, all of which are fairly cryptic, some more involved and creative than others. At times they're not bad, but then you have totally derivative passage such as, "Teardrops have salt-stained this pillow, Loosened from a weakened clutch, By the sun's light: Too much, But I have hope today that I'll find a way to make my dream reality..." And song titles like "Ad a dglgmut" and "Destructo Spin" don't help that so much. But aside from some of that oddball shit that I could do without (Handclaps and silly song titles = no. Arpeggios, jazz laden or acoustic passages, and intense melodies = hell fucking yes.) I'm pretty impressed by this CD. It's still a bit disjointed and chaotic in a sense, but they've come a hell of a long way from their last record, barely sounding like the same band in fact, and I think they'll probably really blow my mind the next time around. I'm going to hold them to a pretty high standard n the future. I'm shocked that this is on Victory Records. Worth checking out... I think this is going to be the band to really take the modern form of "metalcore" into a respectable direction - and that's saying a lot.
[Victory]
Running time - 45:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Mordecai, Reaction, (Shevanel Take 2), Aesthetic]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com
