UNQUESTIONABLE PRESENCE

Though I admit that this album did eventually grow on me to the point where it became listenable, I still have few positive things to say about it. This is basically an extreme metal band trying to break away from the limitations set by their genre with the aid of everchanging tempos and time sigs, resulting in a cacophony without any sense of direction. Don't be fooled by the "jazz-metal" tag either: that's just a label put on metal bands playing music that's more complicated than that of their peers, so don't expect any II-Vs or improvised jams here. Instead , be prepared for the usual dose of fast, chugging guitars, power chords and wanky solos, as this music is rarely complex from a harmonic point of view. It does get promising at times (the harmonised guitars in "Brains" or the tapped riff in "Your Life's Retribution", for example) but those instances only expose the band's inability to capitalise on them due to their commitment to switching riffs every few seconds. The vocals are another source of annoyance, not really in style (I'm quite accustomed to extreme vocal styles), but in the way they are randomly barked out throughout the album without cohesion. There are plenty of other inconsistencies as well, but I wont go into further detail. Get this only if you dont have the patience to keep the same headbanging pattern for more than 5 seconds.