2 out of 5 Stars!

Disappointing. I really wanted to love this release, but I just can’t get into it. Sure, the musicians know how to play their instruments, but what they don’t seem to grasp is how to play all of their instruments “together as a band” in order to generate any sort of cohesive sound. It seems as if, within any given track, each musician is off doing his own thing for much of it, jamming in different keys or rhythms while the vocalist is soaring (sometimes horribly off key) above the mishmash in an attempt to create some sort of melody or structure.

With the drummer adding fills at the most bizarre times, playing (what seems) counter to the bassist on many occasions, and the guitarist and keyboardist off in their own technical twiddling worlds, the songs come across as nothing more than extensive jam sessions, with dozens of different ideas all jumbled together, leaving no hummable parts and no foot-tapping grooves.

The few times they actually sound like a band (people actually playing the same song or the same arrangement of the same song) come along too rarely and the album seems overly disjointed, directionless, and too technically creative for its own good.