AMPLIFIER

Prog?

At least with this album, I see no progressive tendencies so far with this band. The songs might be longer than normal rock standards, but they get their idea across in each song just as shortly, or even shorter. The psychedelic/space rock tag is also completely wrong, as this seems to be alternative metal, sometimes, just plain metal.

The one band to compare Amplifier to would be fellow hometown musicians Oceansize, who even make an appearance on backing vocals on this album. They share some similarities in sound, but I find Oceansize to be the praised older brother, while Amplifier is the reject of the family. Oceansize seems to be hitting all the right buttons to eventually become a promising act next decade while Amplifier is just regressing into oblivion.

This album doesn't have many original things going for it. A seasoned listener can hear lots of riffs that have been heard before, and a too similar vibe from the already mentioned Oceansize, Porcupine Tree, Dredg and dare I say some 90's Metallica.

The songs have littler variation of them; a track-by-track analysis would be completely ludicrous. The basis of the songs seems to be guitar oriented jams that just stay repetitive and then are polished with many overdubs. There is also little do discover upon multiple listens.

This is not something a listener will look forward too after hearing some of the brilliant alternative prog bands like Oceansize, Dredg and Mew. Dredg seems to be the band that really captured a real artistic form with their album 'El Cielo' and Oceansize continues to push the right buttons with their latest 'Frames' to be truly outstanding. Amplifier's debut was a struggle to create anything that can be considered new, but regressive to just common alternative music, maybe some dated 80's-90's metal and even the blackest depths of grunge music. Not recommended to anyone unless they just want some simple alternative music in their library.

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