BitterJalapeno Many thanks to Unitron for kindly recommending this album to me. A rather interesting listen with many musical styles being brought together in unexpected harmony.

The bulk of the album is composed of deep grooves, aggressive, sometimes dissonant riffs and angry screamed vocals but throughout the album, there are some portions which lean more to avant-garde metal and others with the addition of some entirely different genres altogether.

On a few tracks, the metal gets briefly abandoned for hip-hop beats/rapping. Being someone who is generally not the biggest fan of that genre, this was not something I was expecting to enjoy but for a reason I honestly cannot pinpoint, I have no issue with it being inclusive on this album.

Jazzy material also features occasionally. For example, the track "Constant Velocity is as Natural as Being at Rest" makes use of a trumpet in sections that sound not unlike the jazz inspired post-rock of Tortoise. There is also a nice vibraphone solo on "The Constant Destination." Although these sections work surprisingly well, they are appropriately short lived and the listener is soon catapulted back to abrasive metal.

Further surprises were discovered in the final track – “Opposing Meter”. It begins with eerie background noise and a rapid rotating synth part which sounds like Pink Floyd’s “On the Run” followed by a few minutes of silence. After this, we are treated roughly 15 minutes of very pleasant and soft psychedelic guitar work overlying slow rhythms on bongos/djembe. I did feel this could easily have been shortened significantly but it was enjoyable regardless.

Overall, I found this album to be a bit of roller-coaster encompassing a wide variety of influences and takes your mind in many directions. Perhaps not one I will listen to frequently, but I know I will gladly return to it when the mood strikes. 3.5/5 from me.

BitterJ