Veil of Maya-[id]

Veil of Maya is probably one of the most technical deathcore bands I’ve heard yet. I never fully appreciated them until I saw them live a couple weeks ago at the 2010 Summer Slaughter tour. I was surprised to see that their bassist’s guitar had seven strings! That isn’t something you would normally see in a deathcore band. I was just outside the venue by some merchandise stands chatting with my friends and eating a mini pizza (it was around lunchtime). I was sort of listening to them as background music, and while I was inside throwing my pizza away, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; I had to stay and watch this. Pretty soon I was enjoying myself so much I was in the pit within a few minutes (even though I was freaking tired). I was impressed by them and bought their new album, [id], while I was there.

Veil of Maya’s sound is very abstract. The guitarists play a lot of out of tune chords to give the sound an edge. The vocalist is one of those deathcore vocalists that mainly growls, and screams every once in a while (like whitechapel, carnifex, and suffokate). Before I saw them, I had their first demo that I got when a friend gave it to me about a year after they released it. Now that I’ve heard this, I’d say that they are astonishing compared to the demo. Their bassist has great technical skills, and I can tell that he uses every string on his instrument. The drummer plays a lot of abstract tempos and uses a lot of auxiliary drumming items. I would like to note that I’m not extra critical on how metal vocalists sound because it’s very hard to do (I know firsthand that it’s difficult). But I would like to say that the vocalist’s scream could use to be worked on a bit because it’s a bit scratchy sounding, which bothers me a bit.

There are several interludes in the album. The first “song”, which is the intro track, really gives you an idea of what you’re about to listen to. In the next song, the guitarist plays a really weird chord that sounds really cool to give the song some edge. Believe it or not, in deathcore, I am not easily impressed when it comes to breakdowns. They have to be really good, tight, on-beat, and creative to impress me, and honestly, none of these breakdowns impress me (I’m not saying they’re bad at all, they’re just not quite good enough for me). Overall, the band’s performance and this album have impressed me. I would recommend this to metalcore and deathcore fans, and of course, to anyone who loves discovering new music. This album gets 16/20.

I-Between Two Worlds

Apparently Abbath was bored with not having a band. So he teamed up with members from Enslaved, Sagh, and Gorgoroth to form a very unique band. I found out about this band from this guy on the internet who claims to be “the biggest black metal fan of all time”. I was intrigued by the name of this band; mainly because the entire name was just the letter I. The band hasn’t been very active. They’ve only played one concert, which was at the Hole in the Sky metal festival in Norway in august, 2006, the same month that they released their album. Since then, I has had no activity whatsoever. Abbath thought that this band would take off. But that same year, Immortal got back together, and that is probably the reason for the activity absence from I. But even though they haven’t done anything for over four years, there has never been anything said by the band that says they’re split up, or is even thinking about doing so. I have listened to this album plenty of times, and overall, it’s pretty damn good. There are a few things about the music that I would like to be different.

The band is very creative, tight, and uses a lot of influence from classic heavy metal bands. Abbath does his classic raw black metal vocal style with music that has a very old heavy metal sound. When I first heard this, it didn’t sound like something that would fit together very well. But when I heard the music, I was pleasantly surprised with how it sounded. It seems to have created more of a mainstream sound, somewhat similar to Soilwork, DevilDriver, and Nevermore. Their attempt at this has been somewhat of a failure. I do not think that they have done a very good job at being progressive, and unique. A lot of the songs sound similar, and a lot of the drumming and bass lines are repetitive and mediocre. All of the members having come from phenomenal bands, I honestly believe that they are capable of doing something much more amazing that Between Two Worlds. Besides the cons, the songs are catchy, they grab my attention, and the guitar solos are very delectable.

The Storm I Ride is strongly influenced by Motorhead and Queensryche. I can tell because of the faster beats and the way that the pitch of the vocals sounds with the down-tuned guitars. Also, the guitar solos remind me strongly of the style that the Queensryche guitarist plays. The title song has a very heavy, crunchy sound to it. Probably being influenced more by Nevermore and Black Sabbath, the title song has parts that sound very edgy, and some where the band isn’t very tight. Mountains has an ambient black sound during many parts of it, including the beginning, with the out of tune, slightly distorted guitar. The song also has too much of an Immortal sound to it. The reason why I think of this as a bad thing is that this isn’t Immortal! This is a different band that should have a different sound, because if it sounds similar to the band that the leader is also a part of, it shows a lack of creativity. But the album is still worth checking out. I think that if this band can’t get more progressive and technical, that they shouldn’t come out with a new album. This gets 13/20.

Augury-Concealed

A couple of months ago I wrote a review on Augury’s most recent album, Fragmentary Evidence. A lot of you guys seemed to really enjoy listening to the album and/or reading the review I wrote. Well after I saw them live a couple of weeks ago when they were one of the opening acts for Soilwork, I was so blown away by their performance that I just had to get their first album. Concealed was released all the way back in 2004. The long period of time in between album releases was probably because they weren’t signed on to any label for a couple of years. Then they signed on to Nuclear Blast and released Fragmentary Evidence in early 2009. The lineup back then was pretty close to what it is now, obviously not exactly. I’ll tell you, listening to this album was a very unique and interesting experience; I can’t tell you if it was a positive or negative one, it was just nothing that I’ve ever experienced before while listening to music.

I have listened to this album straight through countless times trying to figure out what other genres and/or bands influence their music. I still can’t come up with anything. This means that these guys have created an entirely new sound. In some of the songs, they have a really ambient sound in a lot of parts of it to give it a futuristic and mysterious feeling. There are quite a bit of sung female voices in some of the songs, which really have an edge, because in some of the places where they have it, it doesn’t fit in with the other music very well. None of the musicians use a traditional approach of playing their instruments. Everything in their music seems to have been crafted and put together by the band. Of course, the bass guitar is the dominant instrument in their music, although it could use to be a bit louder at many parts. The bassist plays a lot of the notes by tapping the strings on the neck with the hand that he would normally have by the pickups. The guitar playing is nothing short of very abstract and new. The guitarist does a lot of strumming on the neck, playing with the different effects, and frequent changes in the speed that he plays. Although it may sound like it, their drummer does not do any blast-beat drumming in any of Augury’s songs. I know this for a fact now that I’ve seen the band live and have chatted with some of the members.

My favorite song off the album is Beatus. It has also come to be one of my very favorite Augury songs. In the very technical and pretty intro, the lead guitarist is playing all of the notes just by pressing down on the strings with his hand that is on the neck of the guitar. His other hand is on the volume knob on the guitar turning it up and down to give it a really cool sound. Halfway through the intro, the other guitarist and eventually the bassist join in doing the exact same thing. The overall sound structure is very Avant Garde and unique. In Russian Dolls Universes is a very abstract song. Probably because in several parts of the song, the way that the female vocals are sung reminds me of how the choir from 2001: A Space Odyssey sounded. Augury’s very experimental, futuristic sound will definitely be remembered for a long time, and will influence many bands in the future. Anyone who enjoyed reading my review on Fragmentary Evidence should go out and buy this album. Not only them, but anyone who is into progressive music, and enjoyed reading this review should go out and buy this album. I also noticed that the vocalist for Augury read my Fragmentary Evidence review and left a comment. It would be awesome if he read this review. This album gets 15/20.

ReVamp-ReVamp

When After Forever disbanded in February, 2009, singer Floor Jansen claimed that she would take this opportunity and form a new band. She said in an interview that she wanted this band to have a sound that was more fitting to the lyrics she wrote, because she felt that in After Forever, quite a few of the songs (soundwise) didn’t fit the lyrics she had written. ReVamp has the keyboardist from After Forever, and a few other musicians that have worked with Floor in the past. Many reviewers have claimed that ReVamp sounds no different than After Forever, which isn’t really a good thing. Others have said that Floor’s voice isn’t nearly as good as before, and that the songs are not creative and that the overall sound is mediocre. But then again, there is the crowd (which includes me) that enjoys ReVamp very much.

ReVamp’s overall sound is much heavier and darker than After Forever. The Dutch band has really pushed symphonic metal into a whole new realm. It sounds like they have mixed in some metalcore in with their sound, causing the more technical sounding guitar parts and drumming, as well as the sound of the guitar distortion. Floor’s voice has changed quite a bit, being slightly deeper, and having more of an edgy sound. The bassist in my opinion is the best musician in the band. He plays most of the songs with a five string bass, but in an interview he said that he played a couple of the songs using a six string bass (not stating what the songs were). The member who does the growling is not very good at it. I feel he should practice and work on it more so that he can develop his own unique vocal sound (like every good metal vocalist does). The band isn’t quite as tight as After Forever was. I feel that the band was put together very fast and came out with an album too soon. It would have been better if they took more time in perfecting their songs and practicing more times, as well as more thoroughly.

In this review, I will only talk about the song that is split into three very different parts. Part one uses a lot of symphonic and orchestral instruments, as well as a piano playing in the background throughout the part. The song has a very heavy sound with an exquisite combination of melodic melodies and dark, crunchy bass lines. I also think that the pianist did a fabulous job on his part, having a very technical classical sound. Part two is fast, dark, angry, and mean. That is mostly due to the fact that it features legendary vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid from Soilwork. The song is very technical, very fast, and it has a thrash metal feeling during some parts of the song, and has melodic death sounds in it as well. I would have liked it if Floor had worked on being more in tune on her singing in part two. Part three is my favorite part of In Sickness ‘Till Death Do Us, as well as being my favorite song off of the album. Mainly because it has an awesome beat, and that it has one of the most beautiful choruses I’ve ever heard in symphonic metal. They were very creative in the solos, the chorus is beautiful, changing keys almost every time the chorus is played, the overall sound of the song is very catchy, and you can tell that the band put a lot of effort into this part of the song. This is an excellent debut release and deserves a solid 17/20.

The Faceless-Planetary Duality

The Faceless is not only known as one of the best Californian death metal bands, they are known as one of the most progressive and inspirational metal bands of modern times. The first thing I think anyone would say is that the album cover is pretty damn cool. Planetary Duality has been successful enough to bring this young band to very high standards, enough to get them on the Billboard 200 list. But just because they’re really popular and are selling a lot of albums doesn’t always mean they’re good. I usually don’t pay attention to a band’s success because that factor usually has no meaning to me, so I don’t waste my time paying attention to that stuff. But this album has amazed me; I had no idea that musicians could do some of the things that these guys have done.

The first thing that I would like to note is that I hate it when the kickdrums are too high pitched; I like it when they have a deeper sound, and the sound of the kickdrums in this album is just a tad bit too high pitched for my taste. Aside from that, the band’s music is very fast, and extremely creative and technical in every way possible. There isn’t any part of Planetary Duality that is in the least bit repetitive. One thing I would like to point out that I have never heard before in any kind of death metal is the songs that use the vocoder in parts. It really gives the music a really futuristic, science fiction sound that really impresses me. There are a few songs that have some really cool acoustic parts that give the song somewhat of an ambient sound. The vocalist’s growl has a very solid, strong sound that shows that he has practiced and worked on it a lot. The whole band is extremely tight, and it shows very strongly that band has practiced a lot.

The first song has some of the fastest guitar trembelo picking I’ve ever heard. The song is astonishingly fast, the band is extremely tight, and the vocoder used in several parts of the song gives it a futuristic sound. XenoChrist is, once again, amazingly fast, and it also has some of the most technical drumming on the whole album. Coldly Calculated Design is my favorite song that has the vocoder vocals in it; it’s the song where I think the sound of the vocoder fits the song the most. My favorite song by The Faceless is The Ancient Covenant. My favorite part of the song is the astonishing bass intro. The song is fast at many parts, the bass stands out throughout the whole song, and the vocoder used at the end gives it the magic finishing touch. This album is astonishing. I can’t wait for the The Faceless’ next masterpiece. This album deserves 18/20.

Mnemic-Sons of the System

There can’t possibly be any way that metalcore can get any heavier than this. This band has come a long way. They are one of Metallica’s favorite bands, and they’ve played at the Wacken Open Air festival, where only legends and bands considered landmarks in metal play. The album was recorded in the band’s own studio. Mnemic describes the album to be more theatrical and catchy. This is by far my favorite Mnemic album. Everything from the album cover to the overall sound of the album is awesome. Like I said before, this is the heaviest metalcore band of all time and I love it.

Being one of my favorite metalcore albums, I would like to say first off, that I have been listening to these guys since the release of Audio Injected Soul. But I didn’t really think much of them, or listen to them that much until Sons of the System came out. After I was blown away by Sons of the System, I went back and listened to the other albums I had by them, and wondered “why the hell didn’t this band speak out to me before Sons of the System??” I guess that the new album is the best first impression for people new to the band. The instant I find out that they will be playing in Seattle, I will buy the damn tickets!

Every song on this album is very different from each other. There are songs that are more electronic and theatrical, with more of a melodic sound, and there are songs that are very fast and heavy. It’s very hard to pick my favorites, but there are a handful of songs that stand out to me. The title song is the best first impression for anyone. It has their theatrical, melodic sound mixed with their brutally fast sound; the best first impression for anyone. Mnightmare is probably the heaviest song off the album. The song’s very fast drumming and tempos are really driving and leave my heart racing after every time I listen to the song. Dreamjunkie has more of a theatrical sound with a very catchy beat and vocals. The Erasing has a catchy sound to it with some brutal drumming to mix it up a bit. This is by far my favorite Mnemic album and would recommend it to all metalheads. I’m giving Sons of the System 19/20.

Dethklok-Dethalbum II

There are a lot of people that don’t consider Dethklok to be a real metal band. I on the other hand beg to differ. Probably the reason for a lot of people not liking Dethklok is that they are an animated band that originated on a T.V. show. Also, in their first album, there were only two people making the music (which surprised me because it sounded like there were more people). As well as that, the lyrical themes in their songs were quite comedic and abstract in songs like Birthday Dethday, Fansong, and Briefcase Full of Guts. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of the first album; I don’t really think they truly applied themselves which caused the music to be somewhat below mediocre. But they have really improved quite a bit with the new album which impressed me.

The overall sound quality of the album is low. It kind of has that mushy, metallic sound. The sound of the guitar distortion has a very delectable crunchy sound that reminds me of God Dethroned. The creativity level has gone way up since the first album. The lyrical themes have varied now, instead of all being about “deth”, they have covered a wider variety of themes. The drumming in some songs is also very fast and tight, as well as being more creative and less repetitive. The area that I think has improved the most is the vocals. Before, the vocals sounded like the vocalist hadn’t really developed his own unique sound (which is something that every decent metal vocalist does). It just sounded like he hadn’t really been growling very long, like he was just starting. But now, he has really developed a deep, sharp sound that sounds really cool.

The first song is also the single, and the one with the music video. My favorite part of it is the really cool sounding drums at the beginning and in other parts of the song. Laser Cannon Deth Sentence is a really cool song that is quite fast and tight. The song reminds me of In Perfection by Cipher System. The Gears is probably my favorite song off the record. It has a really tight, crunchy sound to it that has really creative vocal sounds, drum parts, and keyboard backgrounds. Comet Song is not one of my favorites. It is repetitive at parts, and there are times where it gets off beat, which bothers me. Overall, this is a delectable album that I would recommend to melodic death fans. 14/20.

Xasthur-Subliminal Genocide

The music that comes from the mind of Malefic never ceases to amaze me. He has so much to put in his music that his songs are almost never shorter than seven minutes long. The thing I love most about Xasthur is that there is an unbelievable amount of emotion in the music; it’s mind blowing and I’ve only heard a small handful of others that can do that. Malefic claims that Burzum is the one that inspired his one-man approach to his project (Xasthur). His lyrical themes are unlike most black metal bands. Usually, in black metal you would find lyrical themes about Satanism, anti-religion, and Christian blasphemy. But Malefic’s lyrics are about death, suicide, despair, and depression. I am guessing he has had a pretty rough life to come up with such powerful messages in his songs.

I have almost everything by Xasthur, and Subliminal Genocide is my absolute favorite out of all the others. This album takes you on a journey of extremely strong emotions of depression and despair, and it is an amazing experience that never gets old. The sound of the guitar distortion is my favorite out of all of his other albums, having a bigger, broader sound with a bit more bass to it. The guitars also seem to be more in-tune than some of the other albums (some of them having extremely out of tune guitars that don’t sound very good). I also like the fact that I can hear Malefic’s amazing vocals more; the music doesn’t drown it out in this album. If you were to ask me what my favorite song from this album was, I could only narrow it down to four.

Prison of Mirrors is one of the more melodic songs, the message being about someone who hates himself being trapped in a room of mirrors, with nothing to look at but himself, also with nothing to kill himself with. The song has some very beautiful guitar parts, and the drums are on-time with the other instruments. Beauty is only Razor Deep is an amazing song. It’s probably the most depressing song off the album, but it’s an extremely delectable experience to listen to. There are some fast double kick drumming in the song, which gives it kind of an edgy sound at parts. This album has many interludes as well (unlike the other albums, only having an intro and an outro). Just the overall sound of Victim of Your Dreams is very sharp and higher pitched. It has a really thick, heavy sound that is really calming. The last song I would like to talk about is the title song. It has a very deep sound with a lot of bass that stands out. Malefic doesn’t really belt out his vocals as much in this song. He sounds more relaxed. This is a very great album that I would recommend to all black metal fans, and to any people that are still a bit new to black metal, this gets 20/20.

After Forever-After Forever

The self-titled album by metal superstars, After Forever, is their absolute best album by far. The sad thing is, is that it turned out to be their last, as well as their best. In January 2008, After Forever announced on their website that the band would be taking a break of at least a year, mainly to assess the health problems of vocalist and guitarist Sander Gommans, who had been absent during most of the tour supporting their self-titled album. In an interview with Ragnarök radio, Floor Jansen said the band would get together early 2009 to discuss After Forever's future. On February 5th 2009, After Forever announced that they decided to call it quits. The long break, during 2008 and 2009, had made them realize that they did not feel the passion towards the band any longer.

This album has already been prophesized to be remembered always and to be a landmark in metal history. Floor’s voice is definitely one of the most beautiful and powerful voices I have ever heard. No, this band is not “just another symphonic metal band that sounds like every other one”. After Forever are true masters of metal and will always be remembered. They are extremely tight, creative, and beautiful. This seems to be the first album where their male vocalist doesn’t sing at all, just growling. On top of that, the band’s overall sound has a lot less of a gothic sound than in all of their other albums. When I first got this album over a year ago, I remember listening to it over and over again endless times. The distortion of the guitar is very powerful, but a very clean distortion. I think it’s a coincidence that this album turned out to be their last because the album cover has the omega symbol, which is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. But the music is the best part.

Discord is my absolute favorite song off this masterpiece of an album. The song starts with orchestral instruments, but it sounds like an old 30’s or 40’s recording. Then, the guitars come on with a very powerful sound. It’s amazing. There is a lot of emotion in the music, especially in the singing at the chorus. Evoke starts with Floor singing with an opera voice. The song has quite a bit of a darker sound at parts. The keyboard really stands out in Transistory. There’s great growling, an awesome chorus, and really cool, unusual harmonies. Energize Me is the hit single off the album, as well as having a music video. There is plenty of emotion and creativity in that song. Equally Destructive is one of the heavier songs, having crunchy guitar sounds at parts. Withering Time has a lot of choir vocals with some amazing music that matches it perfectly. De-Energized has a very heavy and angry sound with some astonishing guitar riffs and lots of growling. Cry with a Smile is a softer song, with very pretty vocals and overall sound. Envision is very unique, especially with its creative drumming. Who I Am is another heavy song, with great keyboard parts that really stand out. Dreamflight is the only song that has male singing in it. It is also the longest song, being over 11 minutes long, as well as that, the keyboardist really has one of the main parts in this song. Empty Memories is mostly made up of orchestral and symphonic music, having very few guitars. The last track, Lonely, is just beautiful piano and astonishingly pretty singing from Floor.

Overall, I can’t really see how this album could get better in any area, it’s perfection. Every song I just talked about on this review is purely amazing and should be heard by everyone. I still can’t believe that after this masterpiece, they lost interest, it’s disappointing. If you have never heard of this band, and find this review and album appealing, don’t hesitate to buy it, I promise you, you won’t regret it. This album is outstanding and deserves a 100% on any scale.

Fleshgod Apocalypse-Oracles

There are many elements of music that progressive death bands blend in with their music. I have come to find that many of these bands such as Opeth, and Between the Buried and Me, like to add some jazz rock to their death metal sound. Other bands, such as Soulfly and Amorphis, like to blend in a bunch of progressive rock in with their metal sound to make a thick, beautiful sound. Fleshgod Apocalypse does something different though. Fleshgod blends in clips of classical music in with a fast, brutal death metal sound. I discovered this band via internet and at first, this did not seem appealing to me, so I nearly forgot about the band. A couple of months later, I came across them, and looked them up. The impression it gave me was nothing short of amazement.

Fleshgod Apocalypse is a fairly unknown progressive death band hailing from Rome, Italy. Mixed in with most of the songs on Oracles are orchestral music, chamber choir choruses, and an entire song being a classical piano solo song. The music is extremely fast, extremely brutal, extremely technical, and extremely amazing. I've looked everywhere trying to find out who plays the piano in Oracles and Embodied Deception, but it doesn't say anywhere. So I have come to the conclusion that the only possibility is that the pianist is the reanimated corpse of Chopin. That is how amazing the piano parts are. The guitar distortion is very powerful, and has a bit of a buzz to it.

In Honour of Reason starts with one of the most amazing intros I've ever heard, starting with the sound of an orchestra tuning, then the brutal guitars come in. After that, the song is very fast with very tight drumming. The message of the song is embracing realistic humanity. Post-Enlightenment Executor is an astonishingly brutal song with quite a bit of blast-beat drumming and technical guitar riffs. As Tyrants Fall is an excellent song. The only downside is that the song is slightly repetitive. But a symphonic waltz at the end of the song makes up for most of the repetition. Sophistic Demise is the fastest song off of the album with impressive drumming. The vocals also seem slightly higher pitched in that song than in the others. Requiem in Sj Minore is the longer and calmer song off the record. I'm guessing that the band felt they needed to slow things down a bit on one of the songs. There are only two words I can use to describe At the Guillotine, and that is PURE BRUTALITY. Embodied Deception is my favorite song by this band. The piano intro is some of the fastest piano playing I have ever heard in my life. The song is very fast, it's brutal, and it has so much creativity it's practically shoving it down your throat! Infection of the White Throne is an anti-religious song with very powerful kickdrumming. It also has a choir singing at the end to add the classical element. Retrieving my Carcass has some very good bass riffs and brutal drumming. The last song, the title song, is a classical piano solo piece that is very good, and I would do a lot to get my hands on some sheet music of that song (I have been playing piano for about ten years and my favorite kind of music to play is classical). This album is amazing and a must-have. 19/20.

Decrepit Birth-Polarity

Decrepit Birth has come a long way, and their sound has changed dramatically over time. I was not fully impressed by their previous albums, but I was still very pleased, and now Polarity has fully blown my mind. There have been many great albums released this year, but there haven’t been very many death metal albums quite as inspiring as Polarity. I have been listening to Decrepit Birth since the release of their sophomore album Diminishing Between Worlds. Since then I have been watching them out of the corner of my eye waiting for something amazing to come from them (which turned out to be Polarity). It was also to my surprise that shortly before they started recording the new album, they had signed on to Nuclear Blast Records! They must have done something amazing in order to get signed on to Nuclear Blast. After hearing this album, I am not surprised they got signed on to them. I got stuck listening to this album over and over again for about two weeks straight, and I’m not anywhere near of getting sick of it.

Like I said before, the band’s overall sound and musical style has changed dramatically, and I think Nuclear Blast has something to do with the change, because all of the bands under that record label always have a very different, progressive sound. Also, bands’ sound seems to change when they sign on to Nuclear Blast. Their original style was a traditional Californian brutal death sound that had some technicality in it too. Now, their guitars are not down-tuned as much, the vocals are deeper, and they have entered a realm of metal known as technical death metal (which is not a genre I typically use). I would also like to note that although the album artwork was done by the same guy that did all their other album covers, the cover for Polarity has a lot more bright colors and is more abstract and futuristic looking than all of their other album covers, which had darker colors and more of a simple design.

Ignite the Tesla Coil is the longest song being around six minutes. It is also probably my least favorite song off the album. The guitars could be a tad bit better, and most of the acoustic parts are kind of repetitive. Aside from that, it is a very progressive song and I love the melody during the intro. Metatron is very technical and creative. The vocals and double kick drums are very well done and tight. The Resonance is one of the slower, more melodic songs off the album, which gives you a change in emotion when you are listening to the album. Then they start to speed things up. My favorite song off the album is the title song. It is extremely technical, I don’t know how much more creative it can get, let alone astonishing. The vocals in Solar Impulse seem to be a lot deeper than in all the other songs, which fits it extremely well. This is another one of the more melodic songs with very creative guitar and bass lines. Mirroring Dimensions is probably the most progressive and experimental piece on Polarity. It is very brutal, but then again it is very creative and technical, especially in the drumming. A Brief Odyssey in Time is an interesting song. It is basically a short interlude, but it’s an actual song. My favorite part of that song would have to be the mysterious sounding keyboard parts. The Quickening of Time is very fast, tight, and has great bass and drums. Sea of memories is another progressive and experimental song with the bass standing out. Symbiosis is filled with emotion and creativity. It reminds me of the song Sufferstream by Cipher System. Darkness Embrace is slower and has much more of a darker sound than the other songs. I like the down-tuned guitars and the great piano in the background. This album is amazing and I love it, 19/20.