Animals As Leaders

Animals as Leaders | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 28, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Prosthetic Records
• ASIN: B001TW69J4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,284 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #26 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Progressive Metal

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Stunning, June 9, 2009

By 

Mr. L. E. J. Fischer "traderdownunder" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animals As Leaders (Audio CD)

I'm going to start off this review by saying this is a profound advancement in technical and progressive metal. This album is a true reflection of an incredible amount of skill that does not overbear a wonderful sense of musical taste. Overall the album is hardly repetitive, constantly shifting in mood and intensity from heavy, rhythmically interesting riffs to subtle melodies and pleasing phrases, giving this album an incredible depth and texture most new musical projects fail to deliver.

The first track, Tempting Time, seems to be a logical place to start. This song is truly staggering in every way imaginable. Beginning the song with careful use of synthesizer and sampling effects lays the foreground for a monster jackhammer riff courtesy of Tosin Abasi. The technical skill in this song is unbelievable, with such sonic intensity created and the surprising thing to note is none of this is repetitive or tiring to listen to. Midway, the song shifts to a cleanly executed 7 finger tapping line, one of my favourites in the whole album; a clear indication of the phenomenal writing and technical ability of Tosin.

The contrast of this album is a feature I find to prominent. The wonderfully delicate and tasteful Soraya almost resembles the musical variation of Scale the Summit. The jazz fusion influence is noticable throughout the album, and adds a unique dimension to each song's development. "Behaving Badly" and "The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing" are examples of this. Coupled with shifts in time signature numerous times hint an obvious Meshuggah influence, but this is definitely not even close to a Meshuggah clone album in any respect. Each song develops in its own unique way, offering a wide range of distinct musical tones that intrigue every part of the listener.

Modern Meat is another example of a wonderfully orchestrated jazz influenced track played on a detuned acoustic, which provides a reefreshing break from the onslaught of intense shift in time signature and aggressive lead playing. The lack of accompaniment gives the carefully chosen guitar phrase to develop beautifully. My only grievance is it only goes on for 2 minutes!

Overall, this album is a masterpiece. The involvement of Periphery's Misha "Bulb" Mansoor on the album of whom I am a huge fan only makes me look forward any and all new material from the project. Do not hesitate for a second. Buy this album and you will never regret it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words can't do justice, May 21, 2009

By 

the2989 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Animals As Leaders (Audio CD)

I'm going to start this off by saying that I didn't have a clue what I was getting into when I got this album. I was just going off the advice of a friend to "just buy, don't think", and I had only heard a couple songs posted on their MySpace that I wasn't really even all that crazy about. What a great gamble that turned out to be. This album quickly made me forget that I even had expectations, and it has already become one of my all-time favorite albums, despite only having it for a little over 2 weeks. I'm dead serious.

"Animals as Leaders" is leaded by guitarist/songwriter Tosin Abasi (ex-Reflux), and is the first progressive metal band I've heard that really can't be put into a genre. Even "progressive metal" is a label that would make people think they're going to sound like Dream Theater or Rush, which is absolutely not the case. "Experimental" might be a good label, but that's also a bad, terrible label, in that it simply clumps together all the musicians who sound nothing like anybody else or each other. This album is fresh, it's instrumental, it's heavy, it's very progressive (both rhythmically and melodically), it's uplifting, it's EPIC, and it's utterly beautiful. No need to genre-ify it.

Anyways, there is nothing more important to this album than the musicianship of Tosin Abasi. I'm no guitarist, but I can easily say that he makes his music come alive with passion and heart, and I'm worried that his guitars might explode if he keeps making such awesome music. The drum work is phenomenal, too. I've been playing drums for 11 years, and some of the stuff I hear is like nothing I've ever heard. I just wish I knew who wrote/played them (may have been Tosin for all I know, some multi-instrumentalists are skilled at everything).

The two tracks currently posted on MySpace "Tempting Time" and "Song of Solomon", are good examples of the heavier side of the album. While those are damn good songs that will make you rock out no matter where or how you listen to them, they're not my favorites - those would have to be the more laid-back tunes with the jazzier-classical influences, like "Soraya", "Behaving Badly" and "The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing". Hearing an atmospheric jazz-fusion-esque sound combined with redonkulous 5/16 time, meshuggah-like polyrhythms, and a classical guitar-like composition is the coolest thing in the world! Though, even the songs I didn't mention are absolutely amazing! I just haven't had enough time with the album yet to develop a sense of how to describe them (it's that way with most of the album, actually). I'll just let you find out for yourself what it sounds like.

However, don't get the idea that just because I mentioned which ones are my favorites, that there are songs or parts of songs that are just OK or filler! There is not a single wasted second on this album. There is nothing repetitive, nothing that will bore you, nothing that will leave you disappointed or underwhelmed, nothing that will even make you think about skipping to the next track. This is an album that after your first listen, will leave you feeling as though you've rediscovered music. It was good enough that it's been in my car's CD player for the last couple weeks straight, and I haven't gotten tired of it. I can't say the same for the new Mastodon, the new Isis, or the new Obscura, which I thought were all great albums that really pushed the limits of metal. Will I call this the best metal album of 2009? Absolutely, and possibly the best metal album of the last few years (right up there with the latest Meshuggah, Opeth and Gojira albums, and a few other other great bands that thrive on how original they can be).

People, get this album. A smart man once said "What mama don't know can't hurt her", but he's obviously never heard Animals as Leaders before. Buy it now, you won't make a better decision for a long time.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hands down the best metal cd I've ever bought, one word "EPIC", September 30, 2009

By 

A. Phillis (pgh pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animals as Leaders (MP3 Download)

This album cover to cover absolutely blew me away the first time I heard it. This is progressive metal at it's best! I've never even heard of these guys before I bought this album. Every track on this album is a work of art, an epic journey. Tosin Abasi is a musical mastermind. All instrumental, no vocals, just raw talent. I simply cannot stop listening to this record! I must see these guys live! Best $9 bux I've ever spent.