MOMM (23)

Back to the technical stuff. Been listening to Animals As Leaders, this is their 5th release, Parrhesia. Actually, I had been listening to this for a while already, took a break from listening to tech guitar playing & now back to it. These days, when it comes to AAL, I'm paying more attention to the drums, mostly. Matt Garstka is a beast. His approach to rhythm & fitting ideas into songs is phenomenal. I'm also listening more to what Javier Reyes is doing as a fellow guitarist in the band knowing the highlight would fall on Tosin Abasi for his unique slap guitar approach which I believe is only useful if one plays something with thick strings for those low, distorted notes. I'm actually not into this kind of playing. Anyway, Parrhesia is typical AAL, metal vibe al round but disassociating themselves from being one per se. I feel that this release has a certain brush of heaviness to the music which was missing in the previous release as illustrated by the first two tracks (Conflict Cartography / Monomyth). Also present in this release, extensive dreamscape passages (Asahi being the prominent of them all) fit for artistic use more than pleasing the instrumentalists.

ESP: Javier Reyes

Here's another addition to the ESP endorsers list: Javier Reyes. Ibanez, Carvin & now ESP. Please reserve judgments pertaining to his very brief stint with Carvin, the real issues at hand were not privy to us. We should respect the courage to move on in the face of adversity. It also implies the very fact that big names won't guarantee anything, so what if it works out for others?

The joy indeed

The bass-less trio are back. With every release, I have to say these chaps know what they are doing but this one is a little undoing so to speak. I'm not one to acknowledge the existence of this genre called djent. There is no djent, on Meshuggah & the music thereafter. It's metal dwelling in odd tempo intelligence, that's what is is. The Joy of Motion moved away from the djent domain to manifest some lethal prog prowess. It's proving that Animals as Leaders are fine musicians in their own right. There is no denying the fact that the music here gravitates towards metal more than anything else but everything is kept tasteful.

The band also moved away from technicalities as their staple. We can hear very careful arrangements all over the songs with no compelled taps & sweeps to prove a point. The ardent fans can sit back & appreciate the music & acknowledge the band's fine moments in music while the newbies here wouldn't be averse to the brand of instrumental music peddled by this trio. In fact, I believe new listeners would be intrigued to discover the older materials to experience the other Animals as Leaders, the ones who were uncomparable when they first unleash their music to the world.

Guitar-wise, do not look forward to a fresh set of tones, we can still hear Abasi & Reyes' Factal at work. Despite being without an individual to propel real bass notes; listen to how the band layered clean tones to make sure we don't start by asking where the bass is. It's sheer intelligence.