Review Summary: Extremely polished, well executed debut LP
Invocation is a hell of a debut LP. The composition, lyrics, instrumentation, performance and recording of each track (and the album as a whole) is extremely polished. Each track packs a number of musical ideas into relatively short songs, while keeping things interesting and accessible - not an easy task in the realm of prog rock. The riffs shift between heavy, funky and groovy, while remaining consistently rhythmically interesting. The guitar lines move between nimble single note lines, clean, delay drenched chords and heavy fuzzed out riffs. The bass is constantly moving: anchoring each track, but keeping the mood bouncy. Dan Briggs comes to mind as a reference point. The drums shift between thunderous and in the pocket. Each instrument has individual moments in the spotlight, but Analog Bandits really shine as a collective unit. Ghostly, tremolo picked guitar lines shimmer over a fuzzed out bass line open, pounding drums locked in to close standout track, Mnemonia.
The vocals are excellent across the entirety of Invocation. My ears gravitate towards instrumentation when listening to music, but the vocals really stood out to me on this album. The soulful, falsetto sections of Catatonia and the post- hardcore bellows of Mnemonia are definite highlights.
As the narrative of the album moves forward, the tone of the album shifts with it. The last two tracks move in a bluesy and almost airy pop direction respectively. I'm admittedly poor at analyses of lyrics, but the lyrics throughout the album are well written and conjure vivid imagery.
Invocation is an extremely solid debut. The production is excellent and finely showcases these three killer musicians. I'm excited to see where things go next.
Track by track:
Petrus - Solid opener to the album. The delay/reverb on the clean guitars is really spacey and pretty. Nice fat, lively bass line. The ending guitar/bass riff is my favorite part of the song. Drums are solid throughout. I do feel like musically, there could have been a better choice for an opener. There are some songs (Luck of the draw, mnemonia, etc) that I feel musically could have kicked the album off a bit harder, BUT I dig the track nonetheless and I can understand why it is placed there lyrically.
Derelict - The intro of this song reminds me of "On Letting Go" era circa survive, but then the chunky verse riff comes in blows that away. I really dig the transition into the bridge/outro. The quiet to loud ending is rad.
Luck of the Draw - The drums throughout the first half really standout to me on this one. I absolutely love the build to and the main heavy riff. I have a hard time not head banging when it kicks in. One of my favorites from the album.
The Mountain - Strong vocals. Pretty bridge. The clean guitar tones on this album are excellent. The bass line that pops up at 2:00 is rad. The riff from 3:00 to the last chorus is bouncy and nimble. This song fits a ton of ideas into a relatively short track.
Entropy - Good groove to this one. Solid track, but doesn't particularly stand out to me. This is likely due to The Mountain and Mnemonia being such jams and two of my favorites from the album.
Mnemonia- Banger 'o clock. This is my favorite hands down. There are so many awesome riffs. The vox are great throughout, but the last repeat of this particular section (2:06) slays. The instruments each get a chance to shine individually, too. The outro section with spacey tremolo picked guitars shimmering over the nasty, locked in bass and drums is adds some nice atmosphere. It gets stuck in my head regularly.
The Mad Mist - The fuzzy/octave-y ending riff crushes. I'm a huge fan of this tone. It sounds great on the previous track as well.
Catatonia - Very soulful. A bit mellower than the previous tracks. The vocals take center stage and kill it. This song showcases the range this band has.
Dreaming Quake - Great closer and a mellowed come down from the craziness of the previous tracks. I get somewhat of a mellow Coheed vibe from this one.
