Now this is pleasant enough. Good prog metal with all its bells, whistles and straps intact from Imminent Sonic Destruction who deliver some prog-metal from concentrate, in the form of their second album Triumphia, and it’s good. In the same way that Zen philosophy is good and like Zen it’s all about the journey not the destination.
If prog was an adjective then colour Trumphia prog. Its form cuts some very clear lines filled in with sonic gradients that blend the structure with the flow of chords and arps. It’s the tinkerers sound and it’s expressed with utmost deliberation. Which sure does sound assertive and confident but unfortunately limit the dynamics of the epics making the band sound machinated.
The development of prog songs take on rigid adaptations on a chord theme and Imminent Sonic Destruction don’t deviate from this pattern in their arrangements. Trumphia goes by the book. Working it’s melancholic hooks to the ivories.
Yet the way in which the band utilizes timbre to change tracks is actually quite an accomplishment. Running home the cohesion the album perpetuates as a prog piece. Although the songs are loosely connected in narrative the music is ultimately meta-canon. The tracks slide off each other like tectonic plates shifting onto the next song without any noticeable click. It could essentially come without being split into tracks and instead into two or three acts and it would hold up artistically, but in the interest of time it’s been cut down.
Speaking of meta context the exposition inherited through the lyrics are tad tangential and requires some thought on the listeners part. The music is easy to follow but the lyrics are superficially connected to the tunes which makes it a struggle to fit the meaning and the music together. The general idea is binary almost and practiced with robotic tenure so that the movements suffer. The feeling isn’t expressed with much complexity and the subtleties don’t make much use of play techniques to show a difference in tone. It’s almost computed.
The riffs are interesting enough to warrant a (rough) ten minute average over seven tracks so that’s something, but if anything they feel forced into performing for their time, like a Pokemon waiting to be trained in a Russian Church. In its grandeur it’s a bit rusty on the inside and a few gears don’t work but it’s in a decent enough condition to get you where its programmed to take you.
7/10
I wouldn’t hedge any bets using your psychic powers Ben.
In concern of arpeggios and shortenings; Don’t make an adjective into a noun, it’s not very polite if I say stood on a Ben.
Absolutely though definitely listen to this album, all the things I wrote about can be evidenced through this disc. Challengers Assemble!
The review of this album is not only misguided and wandering, but almost completely incoherent as a piece of writing.
Your use of metaphor (you seem to love “meta-” things) is excessive and reveals the sort of Napolean syndrome usually reserved for wealthy, middle-aged single men who are poorly endowed, but attempt to conceal it with a Lexus. It does provide me with a vivid visual from which your muse has evolved: I imagine how you bravely emerged from your bedroom (your mother’s basement) as you made your way to the nearest Starbuck’s, MacBook Pro in hand, as you patiently waited in line for your Half-Decaf-Vanilla-Latte with Soy hold the whipped cream. Armed with your materials, you sat down to create and then publish your rambling prose, while this album MAY have been playing in your headphones, while you dreamt of asking out the cute barista with the pierced jaw and pink hair, hoping to God she has her own apartment.
Allow me to be more specific, and I apologize in advance if reading this takes you away from the campus Safe Space where you might go while grading undergrad English papers.
Your needless hyperbole begins “with the flow of chords and arps” as the ARP is a specific vintage synthesizer obviously not being used on this album. I also place much suspicion on an album review that does not mention any song title, lyrical content or any specific instrumental performance. Yes, while bands in this genre may sound “deliberate” or “mechanical,” it is characteristic of artist’s in the vein of progressive music to employ such devices, such as odd-meter and complex instrumental passages. Again, I am given the visual of this go-getter reviewer in Starbucks, wearing his Rick Astley Fan Club shirt. The one his mom ironed for him this morning. (I don’t believe I’m being too harsh. After all, the reviewer plays Pokemon.) In your criticism, you make as much sense as calling a new jazz record “too experimental-sounding.”
If you find the lyrics tangential, then state why you do so. What is the album about? What does “binary” mean in relation to the ideas on the album? There is a story connecting all of the songs on the album. A music critic might want to comment on the underlying theme of an album rather than molesting his thesaurus for all of the polysyllabic words he later imagines his readers to have to look up to understand.
Are there guitars and drums on the album? Are there varying rhythms? Again I challenge the reader of this comment to listen to the album. A “composer” should certainly know about key changes, dynamics, and the overall moods of the different songs in a collection. I give Triumph 9 out of 10 stars.
The last sentence in the second paragraph is a dependent clause lacking a true subject, by the way.
– Ben