Reviews

The first thing that greets you with this album is the ridiculously cool packaging: die-cut, colorful, and foreshadowing with its psychedelic sixties feel a little of what the music will be like; leaping through prog rock, classic rock, and metal with ease.
 
The standout aspect is the guitar work, which really drives the record all the way through, having the arrogance to float all over the tracks with a classic rock attitude and the talent and dexterity to pull it off.  The 60s/70s classic sound is reinforced with the fuzzy, overdriven guitar tones, overall moderate tempo, and the vocal effects calling on Zeppelin’s No Quarter sound.  It also gives a grunge feel, calling to mind early Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age at times in the faster songs, and the pacing of the record reflects better the way grunge records were arranged, with a distinct ear for following ballads with faster songs and breaking chunks of like songs into interesting pieces by keeping the line up diverse. 
 
The drum-work stands out as well, complementing the intricacy of the guitar lines well by never being completely predictable and basic.  Often, it fills the songs out nicely by taking on more ambitious work while still staying solid enough to allow for an improvising guitar style without breaking down the structure and flow of the song. 
 
The vocals are sung in a soothing, often effects-laden voice, reaching for a high note slightly out of range to give it a trill and with lots of harmonizing effects and overlaying voices to keep it engaging.  At times the vocals become slightly monotonous, where it seems like a hint of a scream or some strain or crack on the voice would help to break up the similarity song to song.  Instead, a guest female singer is included on three tracks interspersed well on the record.  Unfortunately, this includes the grating eighth track, “Take No Action”, which stands out like a sore thumb along with the single “Tough Guy:” bouncing, poppy, and unconvincing songs that fortunately get drowned in the ambiance of the rest of the record. 
 
Overall, I really like this album and think it will be persuasive to most people ready for a slower, stoner-rock journey.  A couple of the songs maybe would have been better cut off the record entirely, but the rest makes up for them.  I recommend this.