PERIPHERY

When my interest in djent began to rise rapidly, I was in the CD store and saw this album. I'd heard of it before from other djent fans and thought it might be of interest to me, so I decided to buy it, hoping this would increase my interest in the genre further.

Now the first thing I noticed upon looking at the albums booklet is that the band has three guitarists, something you don't often see. And boy can they ever play! The guitar playing is the focus of this album and a huge highlight as well, with the guitarists employing many different techniques into their playing to make it quite an interesting listen. In fact the musicianship all around is quite impressive.

Another good thing to note is the production, which fits the music pretty much perfectly. The riffs in this album are pretty fetching, especially on the track "Icarus Lives!", and the lyrics, while they may not be some peoples cup of tea, are also pretty well done.

Now there is one place the album falls flat on it's face for me: the vocals. The vocals get very tiresome, very fast, and can often make sitting through this one an ordeal. The harsh vocals are almost cringeworthy and the clean vocals tend to grate at moments. However I understand that not everyone has a problem with this, but there are many others who share my sentiment, so I guess it's very much a love/hate thing.

But all and all, a decent album. Definitely not for people who aren't a fan of technical music. Also, if you've heard Animals As Leaders before and you like them, this gives a similar sort of sound only with vocals. And if you can get past those vocals, you should love it. 3 stars in my book.