I just finished listening to the album, and I think this is even better than Portal of I (which I also love). These guys are quickly becoming one of my favorite modern metal bands really. Definitely picking up this great work.

This album was such an incredible maturation from Portal Of I, the cohesive and intelligent writing and balance of metal/violin was perfect on this album

For anybody who cares, I did a little video review of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqPoQxITpMk&feature=youtu.be

I also like it better than Portal of I

MMMMM and I love Devour Me Colossus! Wow just awesome!

I alredy have it and let me tell you that, is a complete master piece, one of the best albums from 2014 with no doubt.

Easily my favorite album of the year, this one's going to be on loop for awhile. It's fresh, held my attention, and never got boring at all. The pacing of the songs is such that parts aren't too long or too short, it all flows in a way that keeps you excited for what could be next. I definitely like it better than Portal of I. I can hear the cynic influences sans the annoying focus robot vocals which is a big plus. The lyrics aren't online yet but I seriously hope they're as amazing as Portal of I. That album had some of the best lyrics I've ever heard in metal.

Addendum: Their reddit AMA was quite informative. My favorite part was discussing the concepts behind each of the songs on their new album. "CITADEL is used to represent the human form; we're all strongholds, and everyone has walls which hide and protect who we really are, but once the gates have been breached it reveals the flames within and how bright we really burn. The three tracks symbolise the points of a triangle, a symbol for fire; each song is a psychological and emotional exploration beyond those walls of flesh, into the the strength and frailty of our existence.
'Painters of the Tempest' is ultimately an anti-war song, of five parts; 'Wyrmholes' is the inception, 'Reveries from the Stained Glass Womb' is an epilogue of an unknown future, and 'Triptych Lux' binds them together by three paintings of light; 'Creator', 'Cynosure' and 'Curator'?it's a look at finding meaning through destruction and the pointless loss of life that we paint ourselves. We are all artists in our own way?we create, we destroy... 'Pyrrhic' is essentially about the struggle for perfection in something and the sacrifices that have been made to reach it.
'Devour Me, Colossus' is comprised of two songs: 'Blackholes' which explores the battle of psychological issues (primarily depression), and trying to overcome through those moments of clarity, and at the end of the album 'Contortions' leaves us with the reminder that there will forever be blackholes." Reference: http://tinyurl.com/k88bz6j

Ne Obliviscaris did an AMA on reddit. If anyone wants to check it out, here's the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/comments/2l0bqz/when_this_post_is_roughly_four_hours_old_ne/

Ok, just listened to the album opener. It was annoying.

Written by The Melting Snow on 06.11.2014 at 09:33

Ok, just listened to the album opener. It was annoying.

As in only track 1 or Painters in full? The whole thing is a lot to take in for sure, a bit awkward for me at first too. They seem to improvise just a few chord progressions through the entire 16 minutes of Triptych Lux.

By the way, the first and last tracks share a similar idea, but moods are a little different.

Letdown of the year.

Why am I receiving updates for this? I took'em outta my fav bands already.

Can't wait for this to get skewed ratings due to it being popular.

Written by Wukk on 07.11.2014 at 04:29

Can't wait for this to get skewed ratings due to it being popular.

You said it.

Also, I won't rate until I've listened all the way through, but two songs in, I'd give the production a 10. Holy shit.

I'm kind of trying to make it grow on me but it isnt clicking for some reason.

Written by Guest on 07.11.2014 at 17:05

I'm kind of trying to make it grow on me but it isnt clicking for some reason.

Only listened to it once and while it's rather good, I can't say I'm very impressed with it as in my case it also doesn't really click. Going to listen to it a few times more and see if my opinion changes.

Fun observation: both Creator and Cynosure are based on the same motif, including the folky violin section.

Hahaha I wasn't expecting my first point of comparison to be The Faceless' latest album. I must say that Citadel is actually pretty decent, but it made me want to re-investigate The Faceless rather than spin it again. I would say that the vocals could definitely be divisive on this album, because the cleans are definitely not resonating with me fully.

Written by Guest on 08.11.2014 at 15:45
Oh! Where are the voters who always give 1?

They're coming, just wait.

3 interludes that can only be classed as classical music, and 3 lengthy songs isn't really enough. Some parts of this album I loved but I don't think it's anywhere as near as good as Portal of I.

A 10 from me! Mind you, no album is perfect (except maybe Isis' Panopticon), so this 10 is more a result of their progress, tightness, direction, talent and work put into this album. I feel the passion.

Excellent. The composition is outstanding and while I feel the vocals will be a big divider, this is a rock solid concoction by one of the more interesting groups in the scene. A lot of depth here, plenty to be enjoyed.

Wow, "Devour Me, Colossus" is just shocked me.. Let's loop that album more..

Beautiful album. I love the hate this band gets from poseur elitists. This album's even better than their debut, and as long as the haters are frustrated with their poor taste in good music, I'm happy. Easily in my Top 5 of 2014.

Written by Alex F on 10.11.2014 at 20:45

However, the fact that this DOES still have a 9.1 after 115 votes is very impressive, and is moving me towards actually giving this a chance, even though I don't typically enjoy this band.

Nah, not too impressive. The band is very popular and had a lot of hype since it's inception with their 2007 demo. Maybe even more here on MS where this kind of "extreme prog" style attracts shitload of fanboy-ism.
I see it normal that the fans rush on voting 10s without thinking. More moderate voters, and eventually haters will come later. It happens a lot with popular bands here, like with the last Summoning which was very high on the top 200 album list (around 20-ish if I remember well) when it hit 200 votes and now is nowhere near the bottom.

On topic, I really dislike this band so I won't even care checking this out.

Written by Vombatus on 10.11.2014 at 21:16

The band is very popular

Uh, not really... even though they get a fair amount of votes here. Underground favourite, but not much more. They'll be exposed to so many new ears that it's not easy to predict such a decline in average rating this time around.

Written by Risto on 10.11.2014 at 21:55


Uh, not really... even though they get a fair amount of votes here. Underground favourite, but not much more. They'll be exposed to so many new ears that it's not easy to predict such a decline in average rating this time around.

Perhaps popular isn't the best way to phrase it, but Vombatus is definitely right in some regards. Metal Storm, Metal Archives, and a variety of other metal forums seem to collectively (through the user base, not staff) regard Ne Obliviscaris as the second coming of Christ. While popular compared to some of the top selling musical acts of the modern age they certainly are NOT, it's important to look at the band in the perspective others use. Ne Obliviscaris are about as popular as any extreme prog band has/will ever be, and rival quite a few modern prog metal bands in terms of popularity in terms of devoted fans and (i'm assuming) album sales.

It's not as bad as I was expecting to be honest, and I even enjoyed a good portion of the riffing, however the vocals are atrocious in my honest opinion, and a lot of the melodies came across as forced and slightly washed out (really emotionless and hard for me to get into). A tad disappointed, as I actually thought I'd be able to enjoy the whole thing given the portions that I did actually like. Ugh I'm revisiting the second song right now and really realizing how much I fucking hate the clean vocals (I'm at the 8:20ish mark if anyone wants to see what I mean). I gave it a shot, but just can't dig it.

Well, I'm a bit disappointed. Especially by the clean parts, which don't hold the same emotions as in their debut. I'll give it some more spins, maybe it'll grow on me...

As far as I'm concerned this album only has 2 songs. I enjoy each a lot, and my rating may go up but for now the album serves some nice purpose for me, yet somehow a purpose that I think something else had filled before.

Since I considered the debut to be a snore-fest on FF, I didn't expect this album to leave a positive impression on me. Even though I kinda like the clean parts, they feel as if they were patches applied and stitched to the album to make it sound fresh.

Great album, it's one of those that need time I think. Not as memorable as the debut though and the songs feel less distinctive to me, still its better than most things Ive heard this year.