ALASKA

This album is the one that solidified BtBaM as one of my favorite Progressive Metal bands. When I first bought this, and put it into the CD player, harshness and no-nonsense metal attitude put me off immediately. However, at the bequest of a few fans, I gave it another go. You really have to listen to the whole album in it's entirety to guage it properly. It starts hard, but then changes often, shifting from Metalcore, to Jazzy themed sections, to electronic influenced/techno themed sections, often layered together for an interesting effect.

The clean vocals are more prominent and get more showcasing on this album, and make it much more diverse and interesting. Tommy Rogers is actually a very good vocalist, and has an interesting ability to to run the gauntlet in the vocals department, sounding downright scary and agressive to soft and soothing, even drawing parellells between Akerfeldt's ability to do the same, though I would have to say, Rogers has a much more agressive sounding growl.

Now, in this album, the heavy songs are interlaced with softer, accoustic/Jazzy songs, which gives the listener a little break from the nearly relentless sonic assault that is BtBaM, and those passages are very intricate and lovely to the ear, especially in comparison to the general Metalcore feel to the album. Another feature to the band that make them so much more interesting, is the audible and active Bass Guitar in the album. A generally unused album in the genre, it creates some interesting polyrythms and adds yet another layer to the band that makes for a better experience. The guitars are top notch, and change styles quite frequently, send the listener through a rollercoaster of styles and sounds. The drummers are fast (for the most part, unless otherwise dictated by the mood), loud and intense. Whether it be the thundering double bass, or the intricate snares, or even the sparse snares, the drums are prominent, technical and fascinating.

A slight improvement over Silent Circus, and a wonderful addition to any Prog Metal head's collection, assuming they can stomach the pervasive agressiveness of the band. My favorite song on the album is easily Selkies: The Endless Obsession, which is a perfect combination of Jazzy feel and metal, if with a somewhat abrupt change.

4 Stars

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