My Rating: 90/100 Best song: pray
Here you can hear a high voice, technically complex parts for guitar and bass, as well as a large number of synthesizers. General album structure is as follows: very powerful songs with an industrial synthesizer (1, 2 tracks), a very powerful song with a piano (3 tracks), typical power metal (4, 5 tracks), a light song with a piano (6 tracks), songs with a change of tempo (7, 8 tracks) and at the end the three most powerful songs. At the first listening it sounds interesting. But with careful listening to the composer's work, some questions arise. For example, about the general idea of 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 tracks. Not about everything at once, but in pairs. It seems that the next track is a continuation of previous one. That is, the second track is a continuation of first, the fifth is a continuation of fourth, and the eighth, respectively, of seventh. I monitored their social networks and came to the following conclusion: this is a consequence of the fact that album was recorded quickly. However, the overall quality of the methods for solving artistic tasks was not affected. This is a pleasant fact.
It's also nice to listen to vocalist. You should not expect a particularly large variety of vocal parts - you can notice that the idea prevails here, and not vocal mastery shades. But it's also noticeable that the voice is very strong.
Instrumental parts are something unbelievable. First of all, it's worth noting a wide variety of synthesizers - here a lot of attention is paid to this. Also here you can hear the high technical complexity of the instrumental parts. As usual, I note that I did not immediately understand how this is played and this is a pleasant moment. The section where guitarist and bassist perform the same part looks interesting - it was so beautiful that I forgot what track it was in. Now specifically about the guitarist. Guitarist is so high that the name “Hanako Fujiwara” is not just 4 kanji in the string “guitar”. This is a magnificent performance of virtuoso parts that are forgotten not soon. This album was no exception - I still can not repeat it. Now about the bassist. You can hear him well in the mix - you can hear all the splendor of his technique. It's noticeable that bassist is improving his sound - in this album his sound has reached the highest point. For example, this is noticeable in the fact that the sound of his instrument does not conflict with other instruments, as was the case in Polyhedra EP. Bass lines are incredible: they are very complex and interesting. However, it's difficult to describe in words, it's better to listen. Drummer also looks cool. The only thing I don’t like is pop patterns in the 3rd track. The rest looks cool. Synthesizers - everything is great here. It’s not just filling the space between instruments, it’s a really big amount of work.
As a result, I didn’t tell much directly about the album - it’s too great for a detailed description. Yes, so far nothing can compare with Polyhedra EP. But these guys for the sixth time in a row show their high skill level. Very bright, very saturated album, where every little thing speaks of a serious level. And it's a worthy release not only in 2019, but also for a whole decade. Well done guys: every time they try to surprise the listener and they succeed all the better - I don't think that he wants to remove the headphones after this.
