CHROMAPARAGON

Usually when listening to some standard progressive metal, you're expecting something not particularly unique or amazing, but often well played and fairly decent all around, then there's Moon Tooth. Everything about this band is quite unique, having a wide variety of influences that vary from song to song, some being heavy, intense metal tracks, while others sound more like a garage rock tune. This highly eclectic style to their music is complemented quite well by the various guest musicians throughout, each choice lending itself well to the style chosen, most notably on 'Little Witch', which has a guest vocalist that is much more loose in technique, sounding much more like a punk or garage rock singer, fitting perfectly with the rest of the song. The compositions on the album are quite interesting as well, very rarely sticking to a riff or idea, instead jumping between many seamlessly, making even the shortest songs by the band highly complex.

This album also separates itself from other prog metal bands through how unrelentingly heavy and intense they are, definitely approaching tech/extreme prog in some instances, especially when the vocalist begins screaming. From the very first note of 'Queen Wolf' all the way to the end of 'Death and the Vibrant Architecture of Rebirth', the album is a constant bombardment of intensity, full of elements ranging from fast solos in 'Queen Wolf', to chugging downtuned riffs in 'Offered Blood', to more bluesy riffs in 'Igneous', continuing the trend of having each song sound distinctive throughout all twelve tracks. This has it covers a lot of ground with the biggest defining factor being the very raw sound it has. This leaves 'White Stag' as the outlier of the album, along with my favourite song from it, being more subtle and subdued in approach, creating some amazing atmosphere that reminds me of Ocean Machine Devin Townsend, have long, drawn out riffs that repeat extensively, taking the riff to its absolute limit before changing it up. This causes the song to sound incredible, due to the soundscape created by such a technique, making it a great way to close off a mostly highly intense, technical album. The final thing that draws my attention is the very unique, high quality vocals of John Carbone. He sings with an extreme amount of soul and power, more akin to that of, well, soul rather than modern metal, yet can also brutally scream or sound really fun and quirky if the situation calls for it.

Overall, Moon Tooth's debut album is one of extremely high quality, each song employing different styles and ideas, going through as many ideas and riffs as a Gentle Giant song, being extremely dynamic in essentially every way. The only real criticism I have for this is that I do find the album to be somewhat exhausting by the time I reach the end, most likely due to the extremely raw production the album has, but even so, I definitely want to see what this band will do in the future, because this is a great first effort.

Best Songs: Offered Blood, Belt Squeezer, White Stag

Weakest Songs: None

Verdict: Extremely strong, varied debut that leaves me with high expectations for the future of the band. I strongly recommend this to people who enjoy very heavy music that enjoy a bit of weirdness in it, as this album has both in spades.