Band:	Headspace
Album:	All That You Fear Is Gone
Style:	Progressive metal, Progressive rock
Release date:	February 26, 2016
A review by:	Ivor

01. Road To Supremacy
02. Your Life Will Change
03. Polluted Alcohol
04. Kill You With Kindness
05. The Element
06. The Science Within Us
07. Semaphore
08. The Death Bell
09. The Day You Return
10. All That You Fear Is Gone
11. Borders And Days
12. Secular Souls

The beauty of All That You Fear Is Gone lies in its intricate details. I decided so when I was first listening to the album and I still stand by that opinion. Why it is so, however, came to me considerably later. Because sometimes, less is more.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into the album at first. The first two songs felt overwhelming in detail and had an abundance of layers upon layers that tended to blend together, and demanded more attention and focus than was readily available from the immediate start on my part. Trying to put it into the perspective of what I remembered of the début and attempting to understand whether it still fits together into the Headspace that I know might have also contributed to the confused emotions and feelings of doubt.

Curiously it was "Polluted Alcohol" that freed me from prejudice and bias. It is a kind of slow country-tune that might be a stretch even for this band if what you expect is a technical and complex layering of instrumentation and sounds upon distorted guitar foundation. Just listen closely to this song, hear the delicate plucking of guitar strings by Pete Rinaldi, hear Adam Wakeman place piano notes just right to complement the guitar, bass and drums towards the end. Listen to Damian Wilson's singing and intonation.

It's all about having the right note in the right place when and, more importantly, if needed - because less is more. That song set the focus of the album for me. It showed where I should be looking to actually see. The songs are, for the most part, journeys on their own. They start out in one corner, go through changes and morph into something completely other that may or may not feel like it's the same song. It makes you feel that they just might benefit from a chorus or two which you could use as anchor points in your listening experience.

As a result, it's somewhat hard to pinpoint which song was which. Looking at the details, though, is like gazing at another world entirely. I imagine archaeology is like that. You sit there brushing dust delicately off another priceless artefact, entirely engrossed and fascinated by every little detail that becomes visible without paying much attention to the great picture. This album is something akin to that.

This album is fascinating because of all the detail. When it's layered, you peel one off, and discover a new one with instruments and melodies in the background you didn't notice before. When it's not layered it becomes about delicate interplay of scarce instruments and vocals. And even then you'll find something new because less is more. It's as much about playing a certain note as it is about not playing one.

A sign of compositional maturity is knowing when not to play on the verge of your technical skills.