THE AGENT THAT SHAPES THE DESERT

Some interesting musical ideas going on here that end up getting drowned out by repetitive guitar riffage and sadly mediocre vocal work. The result is a meandering melange of various metal instrumentation that is occasionally entertaining but seldom engaging. The most notable sonic comparisons that come to mind from listening through would be Opeth and Mastodon, although the total package is one that takes on a life of its own, muddled efforts from Czral notwithstanding.

That being said, I would pay very good money to see an extended jam session between this band's drummer and bassist - they steal the show and make the album at least worth listening to (to the point where fans of extremely rhythm-driven avant-garde metal may want to treat this as a four-star review - Einz and Bjeima are that good).