The post rocky instrumental they open with is cool and the pleasing sounds were good background music but not as compelling of a song as "Menhir" that follows. While the vocals are your typical sludge gruff bark, they bring things together with the needed narrative, The rest of the song is woozy and atmospheric so they serve as a guide post and ground the song to give a more emotional layer. They have refined their songwriting, yet expansion of their sonic scope is still felt on "HTV-3" when there is more of a rock n roll feel to the swagger of the hazy groove. Not unlike Kylesa. Josh from Palm Reader lends his voice to the track which is a more subtle sung croon in the vein of say the Deftones.
The problem with this album is when it gets lost in it's own atmosphere, and the songs are almost not even there. To me they are more like interludes. The only problem with a piece like "Kibo" is it is over four minutes long and does not really go anywhere. Normally I exclude these sorts of things when scoring them for a review, but this band obviously thinks they are songs so I will count it. If you are going to do an instrumental then "Lira' is the way they need to do it. It goes from a shoe gazing rock into a sludged out head banging groove. I am not opposed to instrumentals just make sure they rock enough to keep my attention.
The do not close out the album in an as epic manner, though there is a shift in dynamics to " Unberth" there is a Pink Floyd like smoothness to the guitar playing that reminds me of something from "Obscured By Clouds" . The electronic drums are a nice touch and the guitar tones on this song are unreal. I think I am being generous and open minded enough to give this album a 9. I have been clear in my thoughts as to what keeps it from being their best work , but they are not just a sludge band or perhaps have expanded what you can do as one, fans of the bands will welcome this return.
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