AGNESIS

"Ransack" starts off with a heavy, progressive and guitar driven track. After a minute of a driving introduction, the vocals start, but the sound remains heavy and complex, the way you expect from great progressive metal. The vocals are harmonized by the two vocalists, one straightforward except for the brief growling sections, the other one being in a higher register providing a good texture. During the instrumental break, as things get darker, it sounds like there are some dark synths in there too, and they spur on the guitar to build intensity back and bring in more melodic vocals before returning to the main theme, which remains complex and heavy.

"Swamp" is the longest track at over 8 minutes, and is immediately more melodic and slower. Great vocals continue at a more drawn out feel with the slower tempo, but the track itself leans towards a more memorable theme, again with appropriate and emotional vocals. After a while, the intensity builds as the guitars drive things forward. Things break down and become more atmospheric before the 5 minute mark, and then the drum and guitar build things up again for a nice, dynamic, instrumental section. The vocals remind me of some of Mike Patton's more accessible sound from "Faith No More", etc. but the music itself is more progressive, so it's a good match.

"Obolus" has a somewhat uplifting feel brought on by the driving rhythm and guitar work, the sound still has dark undertones, but the vocals tend to bring it out of that darkness into light. The vocals actually go dirty later however as layers of harmonies contrast the growling making for a very appealing sound, again it is kept to a minimum as clean vocals later return to the theme later. The last track is "Vissitude" which is a very nice acoustic instrumental, still complex though.

This is a really great EP which has the bones of what could have been an excellent album if more, similar material could have been added. The sound is really good, the instruments and vocals are dynamic and the themes are interesting and have the right amount of complexity to keep things progressive. The main problem here is the shortness of the EP that keeps this from being better, but at least you are wanting more at the end of it all. In the end, an EP is the chosen format in order to introduce the 2 new members of the band, and their input is excellent here. I can't wait to hear how it all comes together in a full length album, hopefully not too far off in the future. I can at least give this EP 4 stars (it is deserving of more than just 3 stars even in its brevity).