CHOIRS OF THE EYE

My observation of Toby Driver through his various projects is that he is very much an artist and seems to strongly emphasize his musical output as works of art and beauty. I would call CHOIRS OF THE EYE the best of his statements I've heard thus far simply because it's the most memorable.

What ends up happening is that this is one of those albums where the album is meant to be viewed/heard/understood as a whole rather than a collection of ''songs'', and that listening to one song by itself would have little meaning as it is part of a whole? or something like that. It's an album that exists to be appreciated, revered and respected as a high-brow form of art metal. Capturing the mood of post-rock, avant-garde music, classical and metal sounds over the course of the album (and in some cases, just one movement/song) is an impressive endeavor considering that the ebbing and flowing between any two ideas is smoother than traditional ''every genre but the kitchen sink'' albums.

There still leaves one problem with me, and why I don't automatically consider CHOIRS OF THE EYE as a masterpiece. While this is a respectable artsy album, the enjoyment factor is near a lull here. I typically like to listen to music as a means of escapism, a time to appreciate life without taking it far too seriously. It's not an album for everyday binging; you've got to be in the right mood at the right time. It's almost like how Neurosis albums work, except Kayo Dot is less extreme in the metal sense. Speaking of, the euphoric moment of this album is the cascading crashes of metal at the tail end of ''The Manifold Curiosity''.

Somehow on overcast days, the mood that I normally couldn't find in CHOIRS OF THE EYE just hits me all of a sudden. Try it out on one of those days and see if you get that sense of wonder like I did.