The greeting is a burst of modern-sound technical progressive djent. In fact it’s everything that’s been in vogue in recent times. I hadn’t read any of the script so I just took in this riot of progressive colour, which reminded me of Zero Hour, Tesseract and Uneven Structure without words. Neo-progressive post metal is how this mostly solo work is described.
The lack of words is absolutely fine as good music should speak for itself. Looping round and surging between intense passages, this work which goes from Adrenaline to Offline via other …line suffixes is expressive. “Polydirectional Lines” is a fitting description as our guitarist bounces us around djentily. Moods change and here and there a darker atmosphere appears but Uneven Structure it is not. To use the theme of the album, it’s too straight lined for that. Instead of being 8 tracks, it’s like one continuous piece as we are subjected to this admittedly rather good technical onslaught. If technical guitar playing, some groovy lines and a nice steady beat is what you want, then “Polydirectional Lines” is your oyster. It can’t be accused of having no authority as the end to “Underline” proves but this is like the ultimate template of coffee table modern instrumental prog metal. Exquisite as the playing is, I didn’t feel anything as it smoothly progresses from passage to passage without blemish but without exuding passion or excitement either. Even the faster sections as on “Redline” are more noteworthy for their tuition in technicality than any image that they might convey. Yet as it progressed in a post metal way, I felt as if it was like the sun breaking through clouds. But for me it never did. It’s hard not to like but I found this was an album to appreciate rather than one I was ever going to warm to.
Technically good as it is, this is like the prelude to something. “Polydirectional Lines” is like having sublime icing on a cake but without the cake itself.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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