This album just leaked. While they had released a few shorter tracks in advance (Cosmic Delusion, Lesson Burned and Temporal Drive) and a teaser video, I still didn't really know what to expect from the longer more epic tracks. To be perfectly honest, I had a sneaking suspicion that I might be underwhelmed by this release going in... Thankfully the tracks work a little better in the context of the album even if they are a tad unremarkable relative to the other tracks here.

The last few minutes of State of Flux are fairly technical and enthralling, with great vocals provided by Dave Padden. Aaron appears to be an underrated drummer, judging by some of the moments he is able to pull off on that one track. Biolith continues the trend, and the precision of Mike Young's bass performance is a treat. Padden's harsh vocals aren't too shabby either. The flamenco-ish interlude is kinda neat, and it develops nicely. Status Undetermined is interesting enough for a sort of interlude with vocals. Temporal Divide starts off with some strange riffs and some cool vocal harmonizing, but overall feels a little less sturdy than the other tracks. There's a nice pick up in speed near the middle, leading to an exceptional drum-based ending by Aaron, but it just kinda plods unfortunately. Corpus Solaris will definitely alienate those who didn't like the gaming tendencies of the band, and I personally don't care for it that much. That said, I like it better than Van Halien on the last record. Padden saves this track.

Overall, I think it's a very good prog album and I admire some of the highly technical moments that go far beyond what 13/8 Bit was able to accomplish. I still prefer the vocal stylings of Tyler Gilbert over Dave Padden, just because of how relaxed Gilbert was behind the mic and after his unbelievable performance at the end on Time Lapse Beta from the last record. That doesn't detract from Padden's work here, though, which only suffers from feeling a little repetitious at points. I don't know if the album is *quite* as consistent as 13/8 Bit (I can generally listen to that album from start until Van Halien, the only track that doesn't capture my attention), but it's not a significant step down. While there is no super epic track like Time Lapse Beta, it didn't bother me. In a shoddy year for prog, this album stands out with Headspace's All That You Fear is Gone as one of the better offerings. ~7.5/10, possibly rounding to 8 for a MS rating.

Two votes? Wow! This band had quite a bit of acclaim last year, including a MS review! I guess there are fewer prog-heads on MS nowadays.

Written by Diverge on 29.08.2016 at 03:59

Two votes? Wow! This band had quite a bit of acclaim last year, including a MS review! I guess there are fewer prog-heads on MS nowadays.

Unfortunately, I still think they are very underrated and unknown. This album is awesome though.

Damn, this is some refreshing prog. Will have to check out their debut.

Written by LeKiwi on 13.09.2016 at 02:41

Damn, this is some refreshing prog. Will have to check out their debut.

That's a lovely record as well. The vocals on that one are very refreshing, but the technical performances on this album are slightly superior.

This album grew on me a lot. The first three tracks offer the best 1-2-3 punch in prog I've witnessed in a while. Aaron is such an underrated drummer.