SOLIPSISM

Some bands would have felt completely lost once their vocalist leaves the band, luckily Left Brain is not one of these bands! The lineup change seemed to inspire the team to take their initial Post-metal sound to new heights. This was of course after the band made somewhat of a try at finding a new vocalist. The search did result in one hilarious post on their official website, more on this in my review of Bury The Facade.

Musically, Solipsism is in a whole different league compared to their EP from 2007. I actually heard this release a few days prior to Bury The Facade and was surprised, upon hearing the EP, that this was the same Left Brain as on Solipsism. This is not just an album filled with instrumental Post-metal music but rather a collection of Experimental Progressive Metal material where every new track is as slick and versatile as the previous one! Some compositions might seem too short for their own good and end rather abruptly, but there isn't really a single instance where I've had the opposite reaction. Plus, I honestly didn't feel the need for this music to have any vocals since the trio does quite an excellent job of keeping the material self-sufficient.

Bill From Los Lunas is the only moment where Left Brain break out of their established style and do a short voice-over tune that can only be described as Tool-like filler track. Luckily this is more of an exception than a rule and the rest of material, leading up to the album's end, gives us a nice portion of Experimental Metal that we've got accustomed to throughout the album.

Solipsism can easily be described as the best thing that has happened to Left Brain. The instrumental material finally manages to push the band away from the position where they seemed like mere imitators and moved them to their own unique style that I hope they will build upon in the years to come!

***** star songs: Rivers (4:02) Kings Misfortune (4:12)

**** star songs: Kali /Emanations (5:19) Io (4:25) APO/ATAR (1:01) Druid (3:16) Yggdrasil (The World Tree) (4:12) Empire of Oblivion (6:05) Daath (3:30) Delirium Tremens (3:45)

*** star songs: Bill From Los Lunas (1:14)