SHORES OF THE ABSTRACT LINE

"Cinematic metal" with all of the requisite djenty guitar power chords, machine gun bass drumming and male vocal screams/growls, yet interlaced within and between are plenty of soft, atmospheric, and even ambient sections--over which voice samples from a wide variety of languages are often on display. Interesting, surprising, and well recorded.

Favorite tracks: If Pink Floyd went metal we might get something like, "III. West Shore: Where We Lost the Ones" (10:31) (9/10) and insistent "V. Central Shore: Tio" (5:26) which is sung emotionally in Spanish (9/10).

Also good: the dreamy piano-based opener, "I. East Shore: Landscape in the Mist" (1:42) (8/10), the TUNE Lucid Moments-like "VI. North Shore: The Abstract Line" (6:56) (8/10), and; "VIII. The South Shore: Blind Man's Eye" (15:10) (8/10).

I found myself often reminded of the brilliant 2011 album Lucid Moments by Poland's TUNE while listening to this. Despite the growls and heavy sections (which are actually in the minority) this album is well worthy of repeated listens. Four stars.