I can tell you right now that from hearing the first couple tracks on this album that this is the best AAL album they've done thus far. You can tell that they worked together on every detail of the songs and music. In their past records we can clearly see where this is a Tosin song, that's a Reyes song, or that's a Garstka song. They've finally achieved democratic band mode where they give it their all while working together and the end result is bloody brill.
What can I say about the music? This music sounds like Meshuggah (Swedes have a monopoly on metal) had a black jazz baby that grew up to become a rocket scientist that works at Nasa. This is like space age progressive metal riffery at its finest. It djents (djent, new style of metal based around chugging in odd meters on bass strings) like all hell but it swings hard like jazz fusion (jazz-rock) does all the while maintaining an originality to it that is exclusively Animals as Leaders. They've developed a style and they've honed that style and made it better and better over the years performing and recording together.
Although this album has some complicated meters (rhythms) it never becomes too intelligent to the point where it would bore the non-musical listener who doesn't know what a 32nd or 64th note is or sounds like. While it is complicated music it somehow has a natural feel to it as well. It's hard to explain but the fact that they've achieved this on record is amazing. I don't think they could've done it without working together on every aspect because on previous albums the music gets lost awash in complicated musical ideas that ultimately sound exciting as a guitar player but might bore the average non-musical listener.
Another thing to note about this album is that because I've listened to all their previous albums there are moments on this album that sounds like previous songs. Bands tend to do this. It sounds great hearing familiar riffs and territory ventured once again.
They go through all kinds of complicated jazz changes, metal riffs, and drum beats but it all sounds like some natural planned out jam. It's pretty impressive. Tosin and Reyes' guitar playing is through the roof and Matt's drumming keeps everything tied down through tribal-like shamanistic beats. It's almost metaphysical. If this is the direction that metal is going I would like to see it continue to move forward in this manner. Metal music is so stale and bland these days that I almost can't stand it. There are many times when my friends turn on some metal music and I just want to leave the room. The last couple metal bands I was into weren't really metal in the traditional sense but were still really heavy bands. The idea of having heavy moments in between other styles is really cool and should definitely be explored more.
Metal needs to progress in order to keep from getting stale. This metal band has ascended above and beyond the average musical abilities of most metal groups. They're like jazz musicians at this point. Very cool to see great young players creating great inspiring music and catching the progressive metal zeitgeist at the same time.
The album obviously has a point to make with the album cover of the man going up a flight of stairs inside a human head. They're trying to make some sort of social or mental commentary but honestly I think it would go above most peoples' heads because this is an instrumental record with no vocals. However, you can make stories through instrumental songs. Although AAL is a great band I don't think they've achieved that level of artistic mastery yet.
This is what intelligent metal sounds like. Not all of us headbang so hard that we hurt our necks.
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