SUBLIMATION

Nothing essential here, relentless technical metal in the vein of watchtower, Spiral Architect, cynic, but no vocals. These guys are talented but this stuff bores me, I can put up with maybe 15 minutes of this before I can't take anymore. Nothing really stands out here for me, it all kind of sounds the same after awhile.

Canvas Solaris - Sublimation 4 stars

An excellent new breed of technical metal.

I was easily taken by hearing just one track by this band, then buying their whole discography, which consisted of three albums at the time. The trio of Nathan Sapp (guitars, micromoog and synthesizer), Ben Simpkins (guitars and bass) and Hunter Ginn (drums and percussion) had things going right from the start.

Nathan Sapp is becoming one of my favorite modern guitarists. It is very hard to describe one guitarist among so many different kinds, so I will just give my take on him. Nathan's playing style is very colorful and vibrant. Nathan layers guitar melodies on top of melodies like it's nothing, including to his cause that it is over changing signatures. Every riff thrown down sounds great, each with a different dynamic structure and pattern of notes.it is hard to believe how he could make such work.

As being part of the tech genre, I wouldn't need to make a statement about each member being proficient at their instrument. But, at least for the guitar sections, they should be in the top few for any virtuoso guitarist list, for being so complex yet maintaining listenable melodies over melodies. Not to mention how they use 12-string acoustic and electric guitars so proficiently as well.

This is the least diverse of their albums and which of course to me, makes it their worst. Because I stated it is the least diverse, does not mean it is not a diverse album. There are plenty of jazzy sections, Discipline-era Crimson and even tribal sections like the last three minutes of 'When Solar Winds Collide'. This is highly recommend to fans in and outside technical metal circles, though the latter albums I would recommend to any fan of progressive music. 'Sublimation' is just a little more metal and less diverse, still an excellent album.