MANIPULATION UNDER ANESTHESIA

Formed in Pleasanton, CA, an East Bay suburb of San Francisco, the progressive powerhouse ABNORMAL THOUGHT PATTERNS is the creation of brothers Jasun Tipton (guitar, keyboards) and Troy Tipton (bass) who formerly played together in the progressive metal band Zero Hour. The idea for this band began after Jasun composed his first solo 12-minute instrumental piece 'Velocity' and it all turned out so well the brothers decided to make a bona fide project out of it. The duo recruited another Zero Hour cohort drummer Mike Guy as well as a second guitarist in Richard Sharman and the newly formed band set out to record the self-titled debut EP at CynNormal Lab Recordings which debuted in 2011.

The band was so satisfied with the five part 'Velocity' suite on the EP that they decided to extend it from 'Movement 5' to '8' on this full-length debut MANIPULATION UNDER ANESTHESIA that emerged two years later in 2013 on the Lifeforce Records label. Much like bands such as Liquid Tension Experiment, ABNORMAL THOUGHT PATTERNS deliver an interesting mix of instrumental only display of progressive metal, neoclassical shredding and jazz-fusion. While this is clearly in the metal camp the focus is on melodies that find guitar riffs, licks and solos doing a cosmic dance with ambient electronic effects. The band engages in abrupt tempo and time signature shifts and utilizes technical compositional skills such as major and minor chord alterations. Some tracks are spaced out and dreamy with harmonic oscillations while others are energetic and based on lightning fast metal riffs and solos.

The highlight of the album is clearly the 'Velocity' tracks that tackle complex time signature rich sequences, exquisite guitar and bass work and a keen sense of instrumental interplay that changes things up just enough to keep things interesting without moving on to quickly to make it sound chaotic, however this 5 star beginning tapers off into a disparate mix of mellower ambient metal tracks as well as straight on jazz-fusion and while everything is performed impeccably and completely satisfies the technical geekery in me, the different styles seem to clash a bit and fail to create a free flowing album experience but taken as a series of different tracks, this album is quite impressive to say the least.

While the Tiptons and Mike Guy were in Zero Hour, that band gigged alongside progressive metal bands ranging from Opeth, Cynic, Symphony X, All That Remains, The Human Abstract as well as Liquid Tension Experiment and it sounds like ABNORMAL THOUGHT PATTERNS takes a little from all those bands as well as from other non-metal influences. The compositions are all extremely well thought out with interesting dynamics, timbres, tones and overlap of different elements. What the album lacks in a cohesive flow is made up for in the sheer brilliance of how each track is constructed as well as the mind blowing technical chops on board. Jasun Tipton is certainly amongst the very top heap of neoclassical shredders of the modern era and deserves more recognition for his incredible speed-fueled precision.

MANIPULATION UNDER ANESTHESIA is an incredibly vibrant album with equal attention paid to both technical prowess as well as emotionally rich clusters of tones and songwriting techniques to keep it all from becoming a sterile robotic free for all. While Jasun shines on the heavier tracks such as 'Harmonic Oscillations,' brother Troy delivers stellar bass performances on more jazz oriented numbers like 'Autumn.' While the Tipton's are clearly the stars of the show here, the rest of the band has the subtle chops to keep up with their demanding fusion of many ideas. Despite the intensity of some of the tracks, this album has a warm tenderness absent from most technical wizardry bands and i certainly would listen to this album over anything Liquid Tension Experiment released any day. This album was a pleasant surprise but then it again it came form the city of Pleasanton so why did i ever doubt that?!!!

4.5. Hmmm, round up or down? Can't quite go up but it's a close one