OTHER THINGS

While I haven't listened to Plini's full length album Handmade Cities at this point in time, I'm looking on getting around to it, since I find his EPs to be of extremely high quality, blending a modern Animals As Leaders inspired sound, with some djent elements, and then throwing in some jazz. While not revolutionary by any means, Other Things is an absolutely lovely album, and likely my favourite out of his EPs that I've checked out so far, being the most memorable of them and having my personal favourite song by him as well.

Heart is a nice, restrained song that sounds very similar to Toe, with a strong indie rock sound and a lot of notes being played, yet it all sounding extremely relaxing nonetheless, just an all around pleasant song. The title track has a much jazzier sound to it, and the style reminds me vaguely of Guthrie Goven, once again being able to put a lot of feeling into the instrumentals, despite the relatively fast speed of some of the solos. The piano and especially the saxophone both add another layer of beauty to the song, making it even better than the last. Selenium Forest is undoubtedly the highest point on the album, filled with melodic complexity, with riffs that will remain in your head for days, everything still managing to be incredibly beautiful and pleasant, yet still displaying some amount of technicality. I appreciate how despite the fact that this track is clearly complex in its composition, Plini doesn't spend the entire song demonstrating his ability to shred, instead writing the song in a fashion where it constantly progresses, being able to perfectly rise and fall, continuously returning to its main motif, all around being an excellently composed song.

While some of Plini's other EPs can be put down as simply pleasant, this one to me stands above the rest, having an excellent variety to it, each song being the perfect length, all coming together to make an amazing 12 minutes of music.

Best tracks: All are great, but Selenium Forest is definitely the highlight

Weakest tracks: None of them

Verdict: I'd definitely recommend that anyone interested in progressive metal to any degree should listen to this album, as I find it to be very high quality, and the 12 minute runtime makes it extremely easy to just throw on and conventiently listen through.