INSTRUMENTAL INTERPRETATIONS PART VIII: Vipassi – “Śūnyatā”

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 20/01/2017

Label: Season of Mist

A less conservative approach to progressive tinted death metal, they pepper their songs with plenty of other musical flavourings. From the avant garde shredding on ‘Jove’, to the turbo charged, time signature metamorphosis assault of ‘Sum’, each track flaunts its own distinctive character. So if the likes of Animals As Leaders, Death, Obscura and Cynic appeal to you, then prepare for your taste buds to be tantalised.

“Śūnyatā” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Gaia

2). Benzaiten

3). Jove

4). Sum

5). Elpis

6). Paradise

7). Samsara

The Review:

“Instrumental music,” this record’s accompanying press release concludes, “traditionally has a harder time in metal as in other genres. All too often, virtuoso musicians have used their talent mainly to stroke already massive egos. Yet bands like Animals As Leaders have demonstrated that ambitious skills and passionate song-writing can be fused into something greater, which appeals far beyond the grudging respect of colleagues.”

Indeed, while Vipassi drag their instrumental music down more deathly, but ultimately bewildering complex hallows reminiscent of Animals As Leaders – who have also featured in this column – that band has been helping people consider the genre of late. The band’s surging popularity is contradictory to what makes the charts, of both mainstream and metallic varieties, and as a result is opening the door of opportunity to bands like Vipassi.  

The band was born from jam sessions in 2009 between guitarist Ben Boyle and members of Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris – drummer Dan Presland, bassist Brendan Brown and guitarist Benjamin Baret. Soon, as the press release goes on to say, they “settled on an instrumental style that captured the openness aimed for to allow any listener to interpret and connect with the material subjectively. Their project represents a desire to explore beauty and darkness in all its shades, through melodic and complex compositions”.

Just like how the bass driven sounds of Obscura are treading on the turf Death once carved out as their own, continuing their legacy in a heavy but imaginative manner, Vipassi too are carrying the torch. A less conservative approach to progressive tinted death metal – and Chuck Schuldiner was anything but conservative – they pepper their songs with plenty of other musical flavourings. From the avant garde shredding on ‘Jove’, to the turbo charged, time signature metamorphosis assault of ‘Sum’, each track flaunts its own distinctive character.

Like Obscura too, the bass is powerfully prevalent. Brendan Brown’s playing refuses to just steady the ship, it can fly off the handle at any conceivable moment, meandering like a lost child in a supermarket, but played with an impressive conviction, grace and musicality belying of its disregard of convention. He is there secret weapon. 

Where a singer may add interest and that all-important record selling earworm, here they don’t so much as compensate for their lack of vocals by shifting time signatures every which way as they do utilise the void therein. Their venomous songs have many twists in their tails; they can pirouette on a knife edge, flip upside or segue from primitive passages to ones of airy, chilling calm. The change comes as sudden, but never feels anything but smooth.

Listen with headphones and these compositions become wholly, terrifyingly immersive. ‘Elpis’ is one such example. Above all an interloping song, something like this belongs more on a film score than it does a death metal album, but its skin crawling aesthetics stand strong; it gives the album a hellish death.

It leads you blindly into the closing track ‘Samsara’ which best merges their thundering metal, with guitars and bass tightly syncopated and resembling the sound of alien warfare, with hypnotic and creepy atmospherics. They weave in and out of the battle, sewing a vast and extravagant canvas.

Something about the music of Animals As Leaders pierces through the threshold from underground music to something more entertaining, rewarding and accessible – even if its complexity is anything but. Vipassi however, don’t come across as a band who can attain such contradictory achievements. But what they do is extremely appealing, so if the likes of Animals As Leaders, Death, Obscura and Cynic appeal to you, then prepare for your taste buds to be tantalised.

Śūnyatā is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

INSTRUMENTAL INTERPRETATIONS Part VII: Animals As Leaders – “The Madness of Many”

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 11/11/2016

Label: Sumerian Records

Tosin Abasi and company find expressionism through mathematic complexity.

“The Madness of Many” CD//DD//LP track listing:

01. Arithmophobia
02. Ectogenesis
03. Cognitive Contortions
04. Inner Assassins
05. Private Visions Of The World
06. Backpfeifengesicht
07. Transcentience
08. The Glass Bridge
09. The Brain Dance
10. Aepirophobia

The Review:

Every generation plays host to its innovators and Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi, through the imitable tones that usher forth from his 8 string guitar, represents a very fresh and modern approach to guitar playing. Using the extended range to flirt with slap techniques otherwise left to bassists and detailing his sonic canvas with everything from the heavy grunt of djent and progressive metal to swinging gypsy jazz, electronica and more, here is a musician who laughs at the idea of boundaries and limitations.

In many respects ‘The Madness of Many’, the band’s fourth album and second truly collaborative effort, is Abasi’s most accomplished too thanks to the diverse palette which is laid out before us. From the siren-led mathematic chaos of ‘Arithmophobia’ (meaning a fear of numbers) to the likes of ‘Inner Assassins’, which allows all his musical references and inspirations to tangle with one another inside one great big melting pot, it is a spectacularly engaging record.

The pinballing rhythms of ‘Private Visions of the World’ make way for some breath taking lead work before returning with a pinging vengeance. It sounds like a wondrous cross between John McLaughlin and Meshuggah. 

On the final two tracks, their diversity is further broadened when they drop the crunching steel electrics for nylon acoustics. ‘The Brain Dance’ and ‘Apeirophobia’ (a fear of eternity) shift the mood dramatically, giving the record a serene yet oddly frantic conclusion as the luscious flamenco at play soon dips and dives into time signature contorting, spasmodic djent phrasing. The band’s mantra of hybrid stylistic thinking is here epitomised as they seamlessly combine a traditional, almost ancient style of music with one of the most modern without you ever raising an eyebrow in confusion. Such is the quality of this cross-breeding, you just accept it for what it is, close your eyes and sink deeper and deeper into its transcendental depths.    

While its complexity may at times be overwhelming, there is a gorgeousness which prevails through a blazing trail of algorithms and acrobatics. It may sound like rocket science, but it has personality too.

“The Madness of Many” is available everywhere from 11/11/2016

Band info: facebook || official

INSTRUMENTAL INTERPRETATIONS Part VI: Kylver - "The Island"

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 06/10/2016

Label: Independent

An evil and hypnotic concept album that will have your imagination racing.  ‘The Island’ is an encapsulating and fascinating release which heeds new reward upon repeat listens. It is the closest any metal act has gotten to lucid dreaming.

“The Island” CD//DD track listing:

01). The Great Storm Of 1703
02). Hy-Brasil
03).  Monolith
04). The Abyss
05). The Great Race

The Review:

Battered and buffeted by a tempestuous storm, a privateer ship begins to sink beneath imposing clouds and ravenous waves. Hired in 1703 to scout out a mysterious island which is believed to host a portal to another world, Kylver’s epic new concept album ‘The Island’, follows the ship’s sole survivor as he explores the alien landscapes of The Island, having washed up on its ominous shores, with the unnerving feeling of being followed a constant prickling in his senses.   

A picture, they say, can speak a thousand words. But here, through the musical imagery conjured from this band’s unique sound – one characterised by gigantean, whirling Hammond organ, droning bass and expressive, artisan guitar work – speaks far more than that. Though no words are spoken throughout, the cinematic experience which unfolds, as their progressively lavished doom metal twists and turns like a writhing beast, is powerfully moving.

‘The Great Storm of 1703’, at nearly fourteen minutes does more than just set the scene as it ducks and dives through dynamic peaks and troughs. From Opeth-meets-Mastodon inspired sections, to demented Deep Purple, surreal psychedelia and beyond, the canvases they create in your resolutely racing imagination are vast and vibrant. They work to create an incredibly immersive body of work that not only follows up their debut offering ‘The Mountain Ghost’, which helped secure the band a nomination at the Prog Magazine Awards earlier this year, it proves the band’s class and worth was not a one time only deal. And in such style too.  

‘Hy-Brasil’ is arguably the record’s most imposing and immediate song. It’s thick, gooey sludge tones are played out at a rapid tempo with mescaline tripping organ screams weaving in and out of guttural guitars. The drums carry the thunder of the opening act into a new setting to great effect, closer ‘The Great Race’ meanwhile an evil and hypnotic song, coming across like a perturbed Ghost (BC).

Beautiful and nuanced, their booming sound may replicate the footsteps of giants and ogres, but the intricacy of the guitar and keyboard playing helps make this an altogether more wholesome piece. This is heavy and threatening and elegant and intelligent. So much goes on across every song, with the band drawing graciously from such a feast of influences and techniques, it would take an age to work through this record’s aural treats and surprises in such a methodical way. Just be sure to know that ‘The Island’ is an encapsulating and fascinating release which heeds new reward upon repeat listens. It is the closest any metal act has gotten to lucid dreaming.

“The Island” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || official

Instrumental Interpretations Part V: Mothra – "Decision Process" (Album Review)

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 12/02/2016

Label: Independent

Songs like ‘Myriad’ and ‘Cataclysm’, are defined by head turning riffs – ones that are both familiarly groovy and mind-bogglingly intriguing – they are really exciting. On the lighter side of their personality, ‘Solstice’ is beautifully haunting and the mid-sections of ‘Elements of Sleep’ see some impeccable feet work from drummer James Armstrong and clean guitar tones so crisp and clear you want to kiss them.  When the mood suits and I crave a dose of progressive metal both ethereal and guttural in equal measure then Mothra will be there. 

“Decision Process” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Awake the Machine
2. The Beginning
3. Splinters
4. Elements of Sleep
5. Solstice
6. Escapism
7. Corridor
8. The Window
9. Myriad
10. Burnt Impression
11. Cataclysm
12. Decision Process

The Review:

When Mothra get it right, they pertain a muscular voraciousness not to be fucked with. When they fail to hit the nail bang on its head, ‘Decision Process’ becomes an album of peaks and troughs.

The latest artist to be held under the microscope of this Instrumental Interpretations series, they are perhaps the biggest mixed bag yet. But please, do not stop reading here.  Having supported a wealth of influential artists who ply their trade in the same progressive tinted waters – namely Helmet, Russian Circles, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Devin Townsend Project – this, their debut releases, arrives amidst a fair degree of anticipation.

What this band’s vision appears to be, is one of two dimensions, of heavy, gnarly guitars and staunch heavy sections and of elegant ambience – of light and dark.

The biggest pitfall for instrumental bands, if this column alone is evidence, is that, unless the music is particularly flavourful, it can often become more background music than anything else. That however, can be a positive in some situations, I admit. Perhaps it is the way our Western ears have been raised to understand and expect from music, but often at times the lack of a vocalist can leave your focus waning, unless it really grabs you by the balls. ‘Decision Process’ has elements of both.

For songs like ‘Myriad’ and ‘Cataclysm’, which are defined by head turning riffs – ones that are both familiarly groovy and mind-bogglingly intriguing – they are really exciting. On the lighter side of their personality, ‘Solstice’ is beautifully haunting and the mid-sections of ‘Elements of Sleep’ see some impeccable feet work from drummer James Armstrong and clean guitar tones so crisp and clear you want to kiss them (proper guitarist envy here) steal the show.

However, other tracks are, for me at least, too embedded within the band’s ying and yang sound to leave any memorable impression on you. They sound too much like the standout tracks without those moments of individualist brilliance from any of the members to quench your thirst. And on some songs, even the mostly-excellent ‘Elements of Sleep’ you feel they drag the song out to long. There needs to be more flavours to make the song worth those extra mouthfuls.

In that respect, I personally feel that tracks like ‘The Beginning’ and ‘Corridor’, as well as cutting off the excess fat on tracks such as the aforementioned ‘Elements of Sleep’ would make this a leaner but ultimately meaner debut.

‘Splinters’, another highlight, is one of those songs which boast the best of both worlds. With its Deftones on crack meets Cloudkicker guitar work, it is a real feral beast. It slows and teases you, keeps you locked in its crosshairs, with dynamics alternating, ambient and almost vulnerable atmospherics wrapping like a Boa Constrictor, in and out of those similarly reptilian grooves. Gunshot snare work leads you in and out of a plethora of crescendos, each one cauterised by a unique alteration which keeps the journey they are taking you on both familiar and interesting.

‘Escapism’ channels Tool with its bass led freneticism. It gets the blood pumping and, while it does sound remarkably like Tool, you feel it is done through love and admiration rather than mimicry and indeed, there is more to it than just that.   

In the end, when I take a step back at this record, look at the bigger picture then I find the positives much more vibrant and inspiring than the negatives do to blot and otherwise excellent product. Over time I can see ‘Decision Process’ being something I dip my toes into every now and then – as far as listening to it in its entirety I am not so confident – but when the mood suits and I crave a dose of progressive metal both ethereal and guttural in equal measure then Mothra will be there.

“Decision Process” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

Instrumental Interpretations Part IV: Tempel – The Moon Lit Our Path (Album Review)

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 16/6/2015

Label: Prosthetic Records

Take just one of those riffs, write an entire song around it, crown it with an anthemic chorus and you feel they could be enormous. But that would be betraying what the very foundation of what this band is, and so here we have sprawling and deft compositions that gravitate within their own compelling universe. They throw riffs and dextrous passages at you with abandon, each one succeeded by another of the same, sterling quality.

The Moon Lit Our Path CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Carving in the Door

2). The Moon lit our Path

3). Descending into the Labyrinth

4). Tomb of the Ancients

5). Dawn Breaks over the Ruins

The Review:

‘The Moon Lit Our Path’ isn’t so much an album as it is a gothic tome. It’s a metamorphic tale which, upon every listen, conjures within your mind different rancid characters and bloodied plots through their dark and ethereal instrumentation. There are no words, but their music, which nods its head most plainly to Opeth but also to other black, death and progressive metal acts, paints a thousand of them all the same.

That being said, as a consequence of the lengthiness of each song and few repeating and obvious hooks within them, listening to the album in its entirety can become a little overbearing. Yet, when the mood suits, let one of these five slimy and guttural Lovecraftian soundscapes take you away from this somewhat naff world of ours and into the murky depths of your own sordid imagination. When that happens, it’s quite special.

There’s just something about the atmospheres of these songs that bare similarities with the likes of HP Lovecraft, Poe and Stoker for me. The shadowiness, the sense of dread, evil and horripilation is tantalising but torturous all the while. From the Cthulu worship of ‘Carving In The Door’ and the love wrenched angst and fear of the title track, which captures the essence of Edgar Allen Poe exquisitely, I’ve never experienced an album like this before. You don’t listen to the songs, you read them. They don’t remind you of other bands – ‘Descending Into The Labyrinth’ aside, which is unmistakably Opeth, and in a good way – they remind you of authors, their stories and those chilling emotions you felt while reading them.

Though there are few hooks or ‘choruses’ per se, every single riff is intricately detailed and venomously, mercilessly executed. It’s almost, in some strange way, a shame that there are so many killer riffs lined up like convicts on Death Row in each and every song. Take just one of those riffs, write an entire song around it, crown it with an anthemic chorus and you feel they could be enormous. But that would be betraying what the very foundation of what this band is, and so here we have sprawling and deft compositions that gravitate within their own compelling universe. They throw riffs and dextrous passages at you with abandon, each one succeeded by another of the same, sterling quality.    

When the moment strikes, preferably under a funeral moon with rain rattling the window panes, simply pick one of these songs and lose yourself.

“The Moon Lit Out Path” is available here

FFO: Opeth, Cult of Luna, Callisto, Omega Massif

Band info: bandcamp | facebook | twitter

Instrumental Interpretatons Part III: Instrumental (adj.) - A Series of Disagreements EP (Review)

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 17/11/2015

Label: Art As Catharsis

This is finely concocted instrumental music. It paints a thousand pictures through the linguistic intricacies of their music, rendering the need for a singer futile.

“A Series of Disagreements” DD track listing:  

1). A Series of Disagreements

2). Fibonasty

3). The Nightmare of Adulthood

The Review:

Trying to follow the frantic, scattershot jazz meanderings of this Sydney trio is like chasing an excitable puppy around the park. A puppy that has just broken free from its lead and is relishing its new and empowering freedom; or alternatively it’s like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks. Either way, it’s bonkers.  

The three songs that make up ‘A Series of Disagreements’ are restless and delirious; they forage through a myriad of tempos, feels, atmospheres and guises in an instant. Structurally, something as ad hoc and disjointed as this should make for uncomfortable listening, yet there’s a gracefulness to their madness, a prevalent method to the way it never sits still or becomes either stagnated or predictable. 

Throughout the many plot twists, sub-plots, sub-sub-plots and schizophrenia tinted changes in direction which characterise the opening title track, they still manage to pierce a reoccurring theme into the composition. During serene calm, where the music floats atop soothing drum work and ethereal clean guitars, or during foot-to-the-floor metal revelry a la Mastodon, Tool and more, there is still a familiar melodic phrase lurking in there somewhere. At times its presence is subtle, it waits in the shadows. At others it is more abrasive and snaps at you like a Venus Fly Trap. But its omnipresence is what ties the song together and they do it so impeccably well. It adds a polish and a purpose to what is otherwise a song that is simply all over the place.

The title track sets the tone for the two tracks which follow, and this really is methodical madness at its finest. ‘Fibonasty’ is lighter, an airy groove breezing through its veins, while oddly but perfectly place seismic shifts see them temporarily shifting through the gears. It all lets guitarist Simon Dawes flaunt his wide ranging musical vocabulary with jazzy lead work which dances to his rhythm sections lively but not overblown foundation. It’s interspersed however, with some real guitar hero moments where he lets fly and produces some dextrous and scintillating solos.

Where ‘Fibonasty’ is light, however, ‘The Nightmare of Adulthood’ acts as the perfect counter weight. Aggressive, pounding and hammering through a selection box of time signature changes throughout, it’s as frantically off-kilter and garish as its title suggests. The jagged edges of the song and their smart use of textures create a sense of diversity keeps you on your toes and your interest piqued.

This is finely concocted instrumental music. It paints a thousand pictures through the linguistic intricacies of their music, rendering the need for a singer futile. Indeed, the heavy jazz leanings and their general resistance to conformation will make this EP hard to digest for some people, but for those who seek adventure and endangerment, something to drag you into its cosmic vitality and swallow you whole for a short while, then ‘A Series of Disagreements’ is begging for your attention.

“A Series of Disagreements” is available here

Band info: facebook

Instrumental Interpretations Part II: Serious Beak – 'Ankaa'

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 03/11/2015

Label: Art As Catharsis

Self-described as playing “an amalgamation of psychedelic, progressive and poly-rhythmic discordant music,” this is all about creating atmospheres that, be they lucid and dreamy or viscous and tormented, has seen them create a cinematic work of art.

Ankaa CD//DD//LP track listing:

1. Proto (Menura novaehollandiae) (03:29)
2. Main Sequence (Dacelo novaeguineae) (13:00)
3. Red (Laniocera hypopyrra)(10:13)
4. Heat Death (Teratornithidae) (07:27)

The Review:

When your band lacks a singer, often times they lack an extra dynamic that you’re so used to being there; and because we are so used to having a voice at the forefront of music that, in one’s absence there can be something of gaping chasm. For Scale The Summit, ‘V’s’ technicality is impressive but it struggles to engage you – the lack of a vocalist taking away from its lure. It’s all fur coat and no knickers. But Sydney’s Serious Beak would be ruined by the presence of a singer. Just listen to the snaking groove of ‘Red’ as they flit betwixt time signatures like a ghost through walls and tell me you couldn’t get down to this. It’s a cocktail of flavours that reference the likes of Mastodon, Animals as Leaders and a battlefield. 

Self-described as playing “an amalgamation of psychedelic, progressive and poly-rhythmic discordant music,” this is all about creating atmospheres that, be they lucid and dreamy or viscous and tormented, has seen them create a cinematic work of art.

Opener ‘Proto (Menura novaehollandiae)’ provides the latter, the offbeat stabbings of syncopated guitars raising the curtain with a bombardment of heaviness. ‘Main Sequence (Dacelo novaeguineae)’ though, which follows, is quieter, more brooding at first and would sound perfect as a film score for some grayscale, tear stained scene, with hints of the epicedium coldness of Alice In Chains. That is until the sharp Mastodon inspired broken chords wade to the forefront of the mix, an air of Baroness in there too, building to a crescendo of a low down guttural groove. It’s powerful. It takes you somewhere other than your living room or that bus that stinks of piss on your morning commute to the daily grind. This is escapism and it’s bloody brilliant.

Each and every song takes unexpected ventures, just as you start to think you’ve grasped the plot there’s a sting in the tail and they invert your expectation with a wry smile. Serious Beak don’t need a singer, they just need your attention. They deserve it. If you like your music having a fine blend of intricacy and balls out bombast, then this is one hurricane of a record you’ll want to be swept up in.

‘Ankaa’ is available here

Band info: facebook | bandcamp

Instrumental Interpretations Part I: Scale The Summit - 'V' (Album Review)

By: Phil Weller

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 18/09/2015

Label: Prosthetic Records

Stacking twisting lead lines and a jolting rhythmic vigour atop a clean cut intro reminiscent of Dream Theater’s ‘On The Back’s Of Angels’, ‘Pontus Euxinus’ endures a split personality of Animals As Leaders esque, modern, instrumental progressive rock and jazz/lounge, swinging textures. ‘Trapped In Ice’ beholds a much faster clangour, Chris Letchford’s fingers getting to know the high end of his fretboard in a blur. The song as a whole seems to be both written for and gravitating around these passages of spotlight demanding lead guitar work, the closest thing we have to a singer and a voice per se. ‘Kestral,’ seemingly inspired from the creature from whence it got its name, soars high with floaty guitars and genteel acoustic playing.

‘V’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

01. Odyssey
02. Atlas Novus
03. The Olive Tree
04. Narrow Salient
05. Oracle
06. Evergreen
07. The Dark Horse
08. Willow
09. Sabrosa
10. The Traveler

The Review

While aghast at the intrinsic musical complexity woven through this record’s veins, much of the insistent showboatery is lacking in that gouging, soul afflicting hook for me. In short, it’s bloody impressive stuff, but, for this writer at least, isn’t quite engaging enough  The talent that pieces ‘V’ together, like some grandiose and status affirming mosaic is insurmountable, overflowing, but from a personal standpoint, I find it more whimsical than I do evocative. But please, do not let that be a deterrent. There are so many out there who will fall head over heels for Scale The Summit’s veritable feast of technicality, of daunting arpeggios and flurrying chord progressions – for fans of the band, this is another effort in the same vein.

It all comes down to personal taste and perception. I have many friends who shed a sombre, silver tear at Titanic (Movie), at the tragic brutality of it, as it slowly but inevitably swallowed by the icy Atlantic Ocean, killing over 1,500 passengers in the process. But I also know lots of people – my sick self included – who chuckle at the scene where the ship bolts upright and those passengers with a merciful grip hurtle towards the water, knowing their time is up. It just looks like a massive slide to me. 

An instrumental band, I personally feel the lack of vocals and lyrics – one aesthetic that, with the right poetic conviction could unveil its beating heart to me – leaves these songs sounding empty. But for many musos out there who just want to get lost in some phenomenal playing that transcends time signatures like a spectre through walls of an old Victorian manor, will be left with the impression that a crooning or screaming frontman would ruin what this band has worked so deftly to produce. Personally, there’s nothing invigorating about these songs. It’s like when you pick up a book in a shop which, in theory is tailor made for your acquired tastes, but, as beautifully and sophisticatedly written as it is, the story doesn’t lure you in, the images provoked don’t conjure themselves as living, breathing entities in your imagination.

Stacking twisting lead lines and a jolting rhythmic vigour atop a clean cut intro reminiscent of Dream Theater’s ‘On The Back’s Of Angels’, ‘Pontus Euxinus’ endures a split personality of Animals As Leaders esque, modern, instrumental progressive rock and jazz/lounge, swinging textures. ‘Trapped In Ice’ beholds a much faster clangour, Chris Letchford’s fingers getting to know the high end of his fretboard in a blur. The song as a whole seems to be both written for and gravitating around these passages of spotlight demanding lead guitar work, the closest thing we have to a singer and a voice per se. ‘Kestral,’ seemingly inspired from the creature from whence it got its name, soars high with floaty guitars and genteel acoustic playing.

For me, though, it would work better as background music – like the crazy stuff Nintendo busted out in the 90s that would provide the soundtrack for traversing, breaking shit up or generally cutting a heroic figure in a virtual world. There, the music has a base, a reliability as, the more the game sucks you in, the more the sounds beneath it all, that genre bending underbelly becomes not just important, but integral to your enjoyment of the game. That’s the kind of purpose this music should have in my opinion. As a standalone product I just can’t submerge myself into it the way I really should – because these kind of rich and talented sonic tapestries are so often my calling.

But of course, opinions are like arseholes – you probably think I am one too – and I cannot stress enough that, while it isn’t a record that has won me over, there are legions of people that will bow down to ‘V’ and worship it for years to come. Hit play and be your own judge, jury and executioner, but from a personal standpoint, it’s that last role that is most poignant here.

‘V’ is available here

FFO: Dream Theater, Animals As Leader, The Contortionist, Meshuggah

Band info: facebook | bandcamp