LEAVING YOUR BODY MAP

Leaving Your Body Map is the second album of a 2-part concept on the subject of Astral Projection, where the band try to find music in the Astral Plane and put it to pen and paper. The previous album Bath combined gentle Post-rock with abrasive Death metal to reflect the heavenly and hellish things that can be found on the Astral Plane.

While this album does not have any fundamental changes in direction from its predecessor, there is a notable shift to the darker end of the spectrum and more metal songs are present than before. Even the "light" songs now have a melancholy in them which was not present on Bath. Also the divide in soft and hard is not as extreme as before which makes it the album appear more coherent and easy to follow.

The overall complexity of this album is also higher compared to Bath, with some of the longer metal songs ("Stones of October's Sobbing"," A Curve That To An Angle Turn'd" and "Riseth He, The Numberless") sounding not very different from Opeth. While their Death metal is not on the same level as Opeth's one thing they do have over them is that their soft side is far more diverse and better crafted to suit the heavy sections. This is one area where they have improved from their last album, with some of the softer songs (especially the interludes) being breathtakingly beautiful.

While Bath had a few weaker songs LYBM has no sub-par track, however unfortunately nothing quite beats the levels of "Girl with a Watering Can" and "Birth Pains of Astral Projection" found in the previous album. The narrowing of the heavy and soft gap also works against them somewhat as it dilutes the signature sound of this band and risks them sounding like any other Deth metal band.

Initially I was nowhere near as impressed with this album compared to Bath as it just did not hit the same heights in music nor subject matter. however over time the subtle but very powerful parts of the album take effect and leave a lasting impression. For example the transition between "Riseth He, the Numberless" part 1 and 2 is simply distant screaming and wailing which was occurred due to demon possession (and is the scariest part of the entire album, but only once you have properly read and understood the lyrics). Also the closer "Monstrously Low Tide" is the reverse of the opener of Bath ("The blue ghost"). While the opener starts with light Post rock and finishes with metal, the closer starts with metal and finishes with pure Ambient music. All these subtle but very well thought out effects do add up and enhance my enjoyment of this album. There is very little for me to fault in LYBM and an increasingly growing number of things for me to praise. Up to 2 months ago this was a clear 4 star album for me, but the more I listen to this album the more everything seems to fit perfectly together which is why I am giving it 5 stars. Maybe in the future I might even enjoy this more than Bath? It definitely has the potential.

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