Genre : Instrumental progressive metal, Tech-metal, Experimental metal
Released : March 25th, 2022
Label : Summerian Records
FFO : Meshuggah, Pomegrenate Tiger, Car Bomb, Plini, Vildhjarta, Polyphia
'll be honest, even though I enjoyed the singles, they didn't manage to get me all that hyped about having a new Animals As Leaders album (aside from "Monomyth" maybe) and neither did the fact that this would be their shortest full-length release yet.
Well, listening through "Parrhesia", I was glad to hear that my lack of enthusiasm was unfounded.
Was it because I maybe just don't have the same passion for instrumental technical metal that I used to have? Did I believe AAL would have ran out of insane tricks and techniques to bewilder our ears? Or had the wait in between albums allowed me to take their unreplicable musicianship for granted?
Either way, I was wrong.
Although it is indeed their shortest album yet; it is so filled to the brim with different textures and ways to approach both the guitar and drums within the instrumental metal genre that it feels like a much lengthier and complete record than its run-time may suggest.
"Parrhesia" truly feels like the culmination of what the band has achieved so far ever since their inception in the late 2000's.
It masterfully interweaves the key musical elements that made each of their previous releases so discernable into one lovingly crafted bundle where every single drum hit, guitar shred or thump and synth layer is just pure auditive bliss.
It's become a bit of a cliché phrase, but I am being genuine when I say this truly feels like the band's most mature material so far.
And I think the album's length which I was previously ready to complain about is proof of that : AAL are at a point in there career where they know with acute precision what they want to put into a record and when to pull back and cut away some fat even though they could barrage our ears with relentless musical insanity for another half hour or more if they wanted to.
Mind-boggling signature technical ability aside, I also thoroughly enjoyed the album's overall atmosphere and feel; it truly has a satisfying "flowing" sensation to it as though you were being gently carried along a benevolent tide where even its most tumultuous passages feel soothing and the production plays a big part in making that immersion such a big success.
If you recognised yourself in that intro paragraph and you thought your flame for instrumental prog metal had grown faint;
I guarantee you that "Parrhesia" will change your mind and revive that flame and turn it into an ardent brazier.
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