Having never heard of these guys before, I am definitely a fan now.
Gently lulling you in, “Behold (God I Am)” slowly plies in the layers ’til all hell breaks loose and their true self is shown. JP Andrade’s drums are fast and extremely aggressive, which funnily enough the guitars aren’t. Well that’s not strictly true. Ryan Glisan and Greg Burgess’ riffs are heavy and powerful, but tempered with plenty of very interesting diversions and phenomenally played leads. Ezra Haynes’ vocals are deep roars with plenty of anguish and resentment thrown in for good measure.
There’s no gentle intro to “Tartessos: The Hidden Xenocryst”. Instead it’s fast and furious throughout, with the leads being played even faster than the drumming tsunami following in their wake.
“A Path Disclosed” again has very airy leads, but they have also have no issues dropping back to blasts and aural insanity to scour your ear canals. There’s even a couple Spanish guitar bridges in “Twelve” to emphasise their willingness to blend different styles into their compositions. While “Iconic Images” is plain no nonsense death metal, it’s still littered with power metal leads in abundance.
“The Azrael Trigger” is all about mind control, but with grooves as infectious as these I doubt anyone listening is going to mind having theirs taken over by the desire to bang their head in appreciation.
I really enjoy listening to lyrics that are more than just words strung together to stop a song being an instrumental and “From the Stars Death Came” has the feel of a sci-fi disaster movie, but scored by metal.
“Timeline Dissonance” carries on with the up-tempo riffing where Corey Archuleta’s bass helps thump things home.
The title track “Formshifter” has some great riff and high speed changes for added emphasis on the leads and vocals.
“Secrets of the Sequence” opens with an acoustic sequence which becomes a meandering lead then a powerful barrage of vocals, guitars and drums. It never leaves a mid-paced feel, even though there’s plenty of blasting drums and hyper fast kick drums to give it a really heavy undercurrent for the final medley of lead guitar solos.
A great album, and lyrically very enjoyable too. Haynes has spent plenty of time scripting these stories and they are well worth listening to.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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