Substantially improved upon prior outings. With just enough of a grim dash of death gruntings, AoN unapologetically play to all their proggy strengths: hook-laden dainty keyboard tinklings, auspiciously grandiose seven-minute-plus epic after epic, and all the lyrically decipherable clean vocals you can shake an alpine Swiss stick at. My only complaint is simple: the band seems a bit torn between the overly brutal and the underly saccharine sweet. While flexibility is a virtue, I do wish they'd commit to a firmer, more resolute style (death, prog, or otherwise). Next LP around, let's hope they choose... wisely.
Bump |
