Ah, the difficult second album…that won’t be applicable gere. This album is monster huge and an absolute killer album. Call it Djent, Math Metal, Prog Metal -hell, you can even call it a jam sandwich if it’s this good. There is so much going on within the confines of one song, that it would give any normal metal band enough material for their entire careers.
The main difference between this and the first album is the introduction of new members Adam’ Nolly’ Getgood on bass, and Mark Holcomb on guitar. Also the production has gone up a notch. For a very nice change the vinyl has two extra tracks compared to the CD release. Spence’s vocals have also come on leaps and bounds on this release, he goes from beautiful cleans to the most gut wrenching growls in one note. Check out the track Have A Blast to emphasize this point, and Guthrie Govan lends an unreal solo to the tune.
I’m not going to do a track by track as the album is 10/10 material. I will just pick out the super epic moments. Facepalm Mute should be called Facepalm Melt – as that’s what it does – with an insane riff and unreal drumming from Matt Halpern. In the beast of an intro to Luck Is A Constant you ask yourself how the hell do they pull that off?! I ask myself quite a lot throughout this album. Also how the heck does Matt Halpern play that complicated stuff on a kit so tiny?! Ragnarock… I have no words. Make Total Destroy is just insane! There is so much happening and yet you can make it all out. Erased is just a beautiful piece and shows how great Spence is as a vocalist. Just to emphasize that they are fully paid up members of the djenty club, Mile Zero has it a plenty. The first bonus track, Far Out, is an awesome instrumental that is a guitar workout, and the second, The Hectic Anthem, is a great cover of a Slipknot tune.
I love this band, and I love this album so it’s a 10/10 from The Grooveman.
