Animals As Leaders "Parrhesia" (2022)

 

Following up on the three tracks of Gordian Naught, Parrhesia's six other songs follow in a typical vein for this band. Complexing instrumentals of rhythmic uncertainty resolving and instrumental aesthetic exploration yielding both unwieldy chunks of reactionary groove and beautifully scenic melodics. My exposure to the original three has perhaps tainted my experience, in the best way possible. To thees ears, the six new cuts have more gratifying shades of color when they blossom and more often too. This makes the churning of the cold polyrythmic density more bearable. The hard drives through the aggressive terrain of tightly jolting deep end guitar noise often leads to lavish explosions of emotion. The guitar tones and texture open up, brightening the mood and self illuminating in tandem with its melodies and chords.

 

A little infusion of synth key arpeggios along the way is a niche touch. Its blooms and respites between are often the most appealing aspect, as the band foray into Post Rock and Metal territory with textural landscapes breaking out of regular riffing structures. The immense talent of these musicians makes it a marvel to unfold in its best passages. The trio can be heard firing on all cylinders, giving all their instrumentation a density that needs unpacking. Drum patterns woven yet groovy and charming, Even some "lighter", acoustic led refrains have a dexterous depth.

The problem for me is the low end guitar work. Initially a draw, something I'm fond of, Animals As Leaders get a little to into themselves on this outing. With the extremes of technicality, polymeasures and oddities as they present them, the pursuit often feels soulless. Thoughts And Prayers a keen example of the choppy chugging getting lost within itself and going on a meaningless tangent. The band is all about swaying between its two temperaments, finding interesting middle ground along the way. For me, the self serving aggression has sadly lost its attraction.

Rating: 6/10

Animals As Leaders "Gordian Naught" (2022)

 

Now approaching six years since The Madness Of Many, this technical trio led by the trailblazing Tosin Abasi and his phenomenal guitar skills, have another album set for release next month. I'm unaware as to if these tracks will grace the record but I must comment that a preference is to be found in this trio of songs in a shorter context. Without a vocalist, looping structures and repetitions often feel drawn out despite the magnetism the band have. At eleven minutes, Gordian Naught is a bite sized delight of the latest cuts from the Animals As Leaders camp.

Sadly, despite much enjoyment, the needle has not moved far in terms of style. The group are still exploring the veracity of timely executions dissecting chugging rhythm and dense aesthetic. Often abstract guitar and bass noises become a facade for extreme polyrhythms and dissonant grooves. The percussion is a particular persistence of ambidexterity. A technical feet of ability, weaving in detailed beats flush with delicate intricacies around the battering picking sequences.

Its best moments are at the intersection with convention. Luminous colors arise from its electronic synths or melodic lead guitars, breaking up the impressive but monotonous drives of its intricate rhythms. These moments are gorgeous, open and expansive. Pivoting from the dark and mechanical into streams of uplift and light. Its jazzy, emotional and soothing yet doesn't come along often enough.

Title track Gordian Naught is the chugging powerhouse concluding with a mighty discordant breakdown. The Problem Of Other minds opens up the colors with synths and leads. Monomyth then elaborates further, its curious background bells giving its grooves feeling. As it drives harder into the mechanical feet, its pivot out feels more gratifying. In that moment it is the most satisfying, better of these new songs.

Rating: 3/10

Animals As Leaders "The Madness Of Many" (2016)

Further exploring their texture driven acoustic Djent sound, American Progressive Metal trio Animals As Leaders return once again, taking another step towards abstraction with further removed time signatures and strange guitar manipulations for all sorts of mathematical grooves and acoustic breakdowns. Unfortunately its the more conventional guitar leads that make the record light up between there regular intervals of polyrhythms, a string of experimental guitar noises chugging through arrangements of complex, dexterous patterns that spark little emotion within me. Initially they are unusual and interesting, yet quickly become dull.

The record bounces back and forth between these luminous, colorful leads and textural experiments in time signatures. The result has no song reaching its purpose, pursuing any peaks or developing a path. They meander and meddle through the motions settled in the various, tempo, texture and identity of that particular song. Its been quite a disappointment after there last release "The Joy Of Motion", an experiment in Latin guitar sounds that was both inspired and technically brilliant. The technicality of this record is in bizarrely complex breakdown moments and guitar chugging that yields little groove, elasticity or much beyond a curiosity.

I've tried hard to love this record and one place it succeeds is in its pleasantries. Guitar leads are mostly gentle and soothing, aesthetics are gorgeous and in its ambience its a great record to not pay much attention too. One song "Ectognesis" starts with a synthesizer lead that opens a door but its involvement in the music is quickly drowned out. It teases at a subdued element in their sound stepping forward but it seemed to be a singular moment in the record. High expectations have left me disappointed but nothing here is particularly negative, it just feels as if these musicians are capable of more, this is a record that feels more calculated than inspired.

Favorite Track: Ectognesis

Rating: 5/10

Animals As Leaders "The Joy Of Motion" (2014)

Animals As Leaders are an American trio of musicians founded by brainchild of the bands aural identity, Toni Abasi. His mastery of the 8 string guitar gave himself and his band a spotlight of attention around the release of their self titled debut back in 2010. Toni's guitar style was memorizing, fast, intricate and thrilling. Not only technically gorgeous he forged a new sound and approach to the 8 string, combining the familiar low end polyrhythmic djents with bright, clean acoustic shredding that blazed sweeping melodics alongside glitchy electronics. It was a sound that influenced the likes of "Sithu Aye" and others in the present Progressive Metal scene.

The Joy Of Motion felt like an instant familiarity, tight bass and drum grooves guided enigmatic colorful leads through a sea of songs that sailed at explored many themes. After a few listens the class of this record started to shine. On the surface the bands sound has barely progressed, but in the subtleties their craft has taken on a maturity that delivered many of their best grooves to date. The polyrhythms come at an ease and technicality that made them much easier on ones sense of rhythm and groove, while still retaining some level of complexity but friendlier overall. Within these grooves a lot of the metal tones had been transitioned to a battered, beating of the guitars for much more tonal and textured noises to chime with the beat, as opposed to chords and leads the band continually made low clunky noises and harmonics. In terms of the melodic side there was a touch of Latin guitar in the acoustics alongside the guitar solos making this record very colorful and bright, as one would expect.

The records production was exactly what they have needed. Compared to the previous two records you can hear a wealth of depth and clarity in all the instruments and their presence together. It gave the record a stage for the charm of this groups sound to shine, and it did so. All the songs were bright, warm and indulging and together it made for another strong record that felt very safe within the means of what this band are capable of. For everything I enjoyed it came as no surprise, I find myself more interested in what their next progression could be, however there is nothing here to be disappointed about.

Favorite Tracks: Another Year, The Future That Awaited Me, Para Mexer, The Woven Web

Rating: 8/10