ACT II: THE MEANING OF, & ALL THINGS REGARDING MS. LEADING

Right after the worst act, The Dear Hunter created their second best act to date, and a monumental masterpiece for progressive metal. This album also started their trend of making +60 minute albums with many tracks in them. With so much music to explore, of course you can expect a good amount of enjoyable songs, the thing with this album is that I like almost all of its tracks!

The album begins right where Act I left. Starting with a short track followed by the proper opener, Procession. This is the City Escape of the album, with its frantic pace and rapid instrumentation. This track doesn't have many build-ups like City Escape but instead it's much more dynamic. Phenomenal track with a great chorus.

Right after Procession comes The Lake And The River which is easily one of their best tracks to date. It's the mammoth of the album, clocking at almost ten minutes. One of their most dynamic tracks to date, this song explores many topics while being a feast of instrumental madness, build-ups, slow ballad-like sections, theatrical aspects, it's an absolute bonanza.

The Oracles On The Delphi Express and The Church And The Dime work as one song. The first one is one of their most thematically-speaking well achieved tracks to date, with a strong 19th century train trip vibe, very fun track that follows up amazingly to the next track, which is a much more progressive metal oriented song. It has a very good chorus, and even if the song structure is basic, it works well.

Next we have Parts 1 & 2 Of The Bitter Suite. First half is very chill and slow, working as a build up for the second part of the song, which is very fast paced and quick, containing multiple time signature changes. These two parts work very well together. The third part is very ballad-oriented, and its structure is one big build up.

Smiling Swine is a very fun and funky track, that's very hard not to sing along to. It's works as a very catchy comedic relief from the seriousness of the previous track. Blood Of The Rose is a beautiful ballad that works as a break before their most popular song to date, Red Hands. This track is very poppy and accessible, I wouldn't say it's prog, but it's definitely very good and memorable, a standout of the album.

Dear Ms. Leading is absolutely phenomenal and of my favorites in this album. It's very dramatic, and has a great chorus in it. I have lost count of the amount of times I've replayed this track. The closer is good, and has an atmospheric section at the end that leaves the ground ready for act three.

An absolutely amazing record, and a massive improvement over the first act. No weak tracks inside it, and every song has at least one part or motif that makes it memorable. It's five stars for me, one of their best releases to date for sure!

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