DOPPELGÄNGER

Looking for new music, I was recommended Doppelganger by a friend. So I picked it up, and was immediately glad I did so. This album is extremely enjoyable, full of twitchy riffs, sudden breaks and time changes. It's ear candy if you're looking for a heavy modern album with bare instrumentation.

However, this album has perhaps permanently scared me off of the rest of the band's catalog. The reason being is that the band doesn't seem to be able to keep the ideas interesting for the entire album. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that the arrangements are constantly interesting and devious, but the instrumentation is uninspired in places. After a few listens, I realized that the band pulls every trick out of the hat by about halfway through the album, and merely reworks them in different ways for the rest of the songs. After listening to the cool riff during the verses in "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X." I realized that it was the exact same riff in "Laces Out, Dan!" and then again, slightly changed and subtly worked into "We Better Learn to Hotwire a Uterus". The same goes for a lot of the other interesting riffs on Doppelganger, which was an unhappy surprise for me.

Given time, the album as a whole grew on me. I hesitantly recommend it to adventurous proggers looking for a fun listen, although don't say I didn't warn you if you feel slightly cheated.