Band:	Reasons Behind
Album:	Architecture Of An Ego
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	May 2023

01. Zero Dawn
02. The Fall Of Human Race
03. A New Breed
04. Into The Break Of A Better Day
05. Heart Begins To Break
06. The Phantom Pain
07. Seas Of Grey
08. I³ [feat. Grace Darkling & Steva]
09. The Flame Inside
10. Letter To The Last Of Us

Symphonics, electronics, breakdowns. Predictable, monotone, uninspired. I could start this review with that “definition of insanity line” to express my thoughts on this album, but I guess that would be as original as some of the songs on this record.

Okay, that’s maybe a bit harsh. Architecture Of An Ego is not a terrible album; it is, however, terribly predictable and monotonous. This is one of those albums that suffers from following a template. It starts with the opening, which is your typical “atmospheric” intro piece. Luckily it isn’t a symphonic one, because otherwise I would have been able to finish my third “symphonic openings on a metal album bingo card” of 2023. No, here we have an electronic one. I honestly don’t feel like it adds much, and it would have been better to just kick off with the title track.

That title track is actually pretty solid. It has a good amount of energy and a solid flow to it. However, soon after you have heard a couple more songs of this record, you’ll soon start to realize that it follows some sort of template for its songwriting. Now, that doesn’t have to be an issue; plenty of bands do that, and plenty of those I do enjoy a lot. For this to work, though, you’ll need a template that offers you the possibilities to add enough depth, and I don’t feel like this is the case here; after 2 or 3 songs, you’ve pretty much heard it. This is simply because the template they use becomes stale and monotone rather quickly. I talked about the title track having a nice energy to it, and that energy is constant throughout, which is a good thing. But I have rarely experienced albums where having energy in your song becomes quite monotonous. It feels like the energy they put into this is tuned to the album, rather than matching the right amount of energy to each specific song.

So yeah, the music itself has energy, but lacks depth. A lot of the riffs start to blend into each other. There are some breakdown-esque moments on Architecture Of An Ego; I say “esque”, because they could have been used more effectively. But there we run again into the issue of the template not exactly working for me. The vocals are very good. They remind me of the ones on that Souls Of Diotima album I reviewed quite some time ago, though I would say the latter had a bit more variety.

Production wise, I have to say that it balances all the instruments, vocals and electronics pretty well. It sounds spotless and balanced. Unfortunately, I feel like it’s maybe a bit too clean. There’s some sort of production coating thrown over it. Like if you would use varnish on your garden furniture, but instead of putting one or two layers on it, you put a dozen over it. Yes, the result is that the album has a tight sound to it; however, just like your dad trying to get in his wedding suit again after 30 years, the result is that there isn’t enough breathing space left, and that results in a fairly predictable sound and guitar riffs sounding quite similar.

Bottom line is that Architecture Of An Ego is a forgettable album. Which is unfortunate, because I’m convinced Reasons Behind has potential. If they experimented a bit more and step away from their standard approach of writing a song as well as giving a bit more breathing room to the instruments, the result would already be a huge improvement.