The trend for progressive rock bands is to pretend to be a post rock band instead. At least that is how this band is being marketed. I like the often moody shifts the delve into and the fact the vocals are sung . There are not guitar solos blazing out of every corner, and when they surface they normally are weaving melodies, so this puts them ahead of what we commonly think of as progressive rock. I have to listen to this album several times as many of the songs have the same feel and it begins to run together. There is more noise going into the second song. There is a slightly shoe gazing drone, to the lull of the vocals .
Normally I just write stream of consciousness as I go through an album on the the first listen, but I have left this one playing for a few days which says a great deal in it's favor. "Forest" flows the best of the first three songs and might be the album's best song . Things stay on the darker side of moody for "All the Winter". The vocals begin to remind me more of Opeth's mellower moments. There is the crunch of distortion here, and they are a metal band by definition they are certainly more middle of the road due to atmosphere and in the zip code of perhaps Katatonia when it comes to where they fall in terms of heaviness or the lack of.
"Devils" kinds of drifts on with the drone of it's melody. It floats nicely in the background but is not the most compelling listen. "Citizen" has echoes of Quicksand to it. Perhaps it is the voices, but the guitar have more grunge to their jangle. They flex a wider range of dynamics while still sticking to the more droning ambiance they have on the last song that feels like a metal version of Arcade Fire. I will round this up to a 9.5 ,as I think the sonic colors they use are pretty cool and this album flows in a way that I can just leave this on.,
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