MAPS OF NON-EXISTENT PLACES

So after a break, I am feeling rejuvenated to review again. So, Thank You Scientist, this is a band I never actually heard before listening to this album, but the name did Interest me, plus the album cover looked really cool, so I was very interested from the start. So I decided to listen to it and see what this cool new album was all about. After all, with an album cover like that, you kinda have to see what the album is all about.

That album starts with a prelude. Nothing too crazy, but the harmonized voices bring a sense of beauty and chills. This reminds me of those harmonies from Moon Safari, specifically Constant Bloom. Still nothing too special but I feel like this perfectly leads into the album in a nice and smooth direction.

Next track is A Salesman's Guide To Non-Existence. This punches you right in the face with some awesome guitar and horn playing. This song wastes little time to get you hooked for some awesome music. This album has a good blending of jazzy musical works and more punkish sorta metal music. It reminds me a lot with bands like Protest The Hero, The Mars Volta, and Coheed and Cambria, especially the vocals of Salvatore Marrano. Everything just flows so well to where it never feels too forced or hyperbolizing a certain aspect of their similar yet distinct sound. It's honestly quite amazing from the get-go.

The next track is Feed The Horses. This track is similar to the last, however it goes for a more horn driven and more creepy sound. Kinda reminds me of Filistata by Stolen Babies. While it is different, it does retain the same quality of the last track, and adds its own flair to make it feel refreshing. I also think I hear a bit of Gentle Giant, which is always appreciated.

After that, we got Blood On The Radio. This continues the trends laid out by the last 2 songs, and makes them even more bouncy, progressive, and bountiful with some awesome experimentation with some eclectic instrumentation, while keeping true with the ideas that were set out beforehand. What I love is that this track knows when to really change gears to where everything feels fresh every minute and every second. It also never overstays its welcome, being only 9 minutes in length. That's really what I love about this album, the songs are short enough to get through but long enough for them to last, and this track excels at this. The horn on this song is by far the best though, it's jazzy, it's smooth, it's cool, and I feel like it fits insanely well with the harder rock sound.

Next track is Absentee. This track is considerably a bit slower in tempo, but way more exciting in feel and grandiose sounds. It utilizes its slower tempo to create a beautiful sound, still keeping the already iconic sound, but utilizing those ideas and instrumentations to create a more beautiful and elegant, almost symphonic feel through the song, and I absolutely adore it. Sounds like a song you'd hear in your head when you're determined to fight or win in a tactical battle. It's super awesome.

The next song is Suspicious Waveforms. This song is the only one from the band that I'd say is more jazz than rock, especially with the lack of vocals and the lack of any really hard rock elements aside maybe near the end point really. This song is definitely different from the rest, but I feel like it fits pretty snuggly with all these songs. However this is probably the least best song on this album. It's not bad, far from it, I just feel it is sort of lacking with the lack of vocals, and I love instrumental stuff, but I feel like this song deserves some sort of vocal performance, even if it's like for only a minute in the song.

The song after that is Carnival, and honestly I really do enjoy this song a ton, super cool and upbeat, likewise from this band's sorta style. However I think this kinda shows the underlying issue with this album. All the songs are extremely good, yet they feel a bit samey in sound. Not too much to get under my skin, but I would appreciate it if they decided to go more eclectic and experimented more. Heck the last 2, minus one song, Concrete Swan Dive and My Famed Disappearing Act, kinda also feel the same from the stuff we experienced. While I do love this sound, it's definitely one I want more out of than the same sorta sounds that came to pass with the previous songs.

Now, that song that wasn't mentioned with the previous paragraph is In The Company of Worms, and that's because while small, they did try out a bit more of a middle eastern sorta sound at the start, and honestly this is what I want more out of the band. Mixing styles with their already unique blending of jazz and hard rock to create something completely new and refreshing, and this is honestly my favorite song on the album because of what it tried to do, even when it was for a few seconds.

So I think this album is honestly really great. Super awesome in sound and performance, and it definitely feels like a love letter to bands in a sorta similar style while also trying to be their own thing. However it does suffer a bit from songs having a similar sound from one another, a great sound, but definitely one I wanted more out of. Other than that, this is great and one I'd definitely recommend checking out.