WAVERING RADIANT

The album begins strongly enough, with three exceptional tracks, but after that, things just start to sound the same, with noisy instrumentation and angry growling. The growling is tolerable, however, even though it is not something I particularly care for. When there is actually singing, it's not bad at all, but those points are few and far between unfortunately.

"Hall of the Dead" Post metal is wonderful in that the artists that comprise that genre create some of the most imaginative chord progressions and riffs, but it's awful in that those very same artists feel the need to mar their work with Cookie Monster imitations. Regardless, this is an excellent piece of work, if only for the guitar work itself.

"Ghost Key" Both the synthesizer and thick bass sound ghostly in their own way, and set an intriguing foundation for the subtle guitars. Again, however, the growling is a negative point.

"Hand of the Host" Haunting synthesizer and bass begin this track too. The song itself is loaded with excellent riffs and phenomenal, distant vocals. The guitars and the bass steal the show, creating layers of eerily beautiful music (but of course must inexplicably include that constipated retching in the end).

"Wavering Radiant" This is a brief, noise-based segue that consists mainly of atmospheric sounds, but no discernable structure.

"Stone to Wake a Serpent" This eight-and-a-half minute track boasts little variety, either musically or vocally, since it mainly consists of little more than growling and heavy instrumentation. Coherent vocals or really enjoyable music don't happen often here.

"20 Minutes / 40 Years" Low, thunderous bass sets the menacing atmosphere, as various sounds come in here and there. This (and the forthcoming track) are the two heaviest parts of this album, but unlike what is coming next, there are some exceptionally cool guitar parts.

"Threshold of Transformation" By this point, it's just more noisy guitars and growling vocals, which is really unfortunate. This piece is a noisy mess, and had this entire work been in this manner, I would have swiftly written it off as terrible. Even the quieter moments are fairly boring and don't anything to endear me to this album overall.