Animals As Leaders - s/t (7,5/10) - USA - 2009
Genre: Instrumental Metal / Progressive MetalLabel: Prosthetic RecordsPlaying time: 51:50Band homepage:
Animals As Leaders
Tracklist:
Tempting Time
Soraya
Thoroughly At Home
On Impulse
Tessitura
Behaving Badly
The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing
CAFO
Inamorata
Point To Point
Modern Meat
Song Of Solomon
A project going by the title ANIMALS AS LEADERS has a lot of potential meanings if one is looking at it from a metaphorical standpoint. Could it be some political statement about the way world politics has been, or perhaps a general sentiment about the nature of mankind from a broader philosophical view? It might speak to some future post-apocalyptic society where animals have retaken control of the earth, or maybe a playful joke at how some vegan activists idealize their adoration for other species to the point of being led around by them? But personally, I prefer taking the literal approach and applying this name to the music and what emerges is quite a wild and technical, yet well controlled animal, tearing up the guitar fret from fret.
Guitarist and musical mastermind Tosin Abasi definitely doesn’t mess around when it comes to playing a solo exploiting the capabilities of the instruments he uses. There is a fairly heavy set of riffs punched through a 7-string guitar that definitely dredges up some similarities to RUSTY COOLEYEight-String Guitarists: James Shaffer, Dino Cazares, Fredrik Thordendal,
Rusty Cooley, Mårten Hagström, Shane Gibson, Marco Biazzi here and there, although Tosin’s songwriting is heavily geared towards a Jazzy and free flowing approach to song creation, occasionally going into Ambient and World Music areas often treaded by Rock oriented queen of the 6 string JENNIFER BATTEN. It gets a bit quirky and otherworldly a lot of the time, but it definitely maintains a general sense of organization and keeps a method in place amidst all of the technical madness.The songwriting on here actually reminds heavily of some classical solo guitar composers from the mid to late 20th century that I encountered during my studies at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Few who haven’t gone through a rigorous, guitar oriented music program at a college, or otherwise be enthusiastic listeners of said art form, will likely be familiar with names like Cees Hartog, Carlo Domeniconi, Elias Barriero. But for those who aren’t, many of the ideas on here have a sort of open ended nature to them, avoiding the clichés of the Baroque and Classical common practice eras, but not going off into the murky territory of modern atonality as espoused by some in the German Avant-garde crowd of the early 20th century.
There are some really solid displays of virtuosity on here, such as the flowing and frenzied “Song Of Solomon” and the polyrhythmic and metrically complex extravaganza of “On Impulse”, but Tosin will often find himself meandering out into guitar virtuoso La La Land and losing most of the JOE SATRIANI and PAUL GILBERT audience who like to have simple song structures and catchy themes in between the shred fests. Nonetheless, if you go in modern guitar wizardry circles, this is something to check out.
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