Reimagined is heavy, melodic and immediate, with the band more unified than a synchronised swimming team. Sporting a verse-chorus structure and a guitar solo you can’t park a truck in, it’s short and (relatively) catchy. The title track is another story.
Joey Baca’s double-kick and snare patterns are so complicated you’d need a spreadsheet to decipher them. His cymbal splashes are more perfectly sculpted than a prize-winning hedge. The guitars shift between grinding out heavy djent rhythms, twinkling through widescreen post-rock vistas and duelling like a pair of prepubescent pirates with balloon swords. Over it all, Mike Lessard’s languid croon repeatedly folds in upon the minor, creating a tension to contrast his indifferent delivery.
The beginning of Absolve could be an advertisement for a boutique delay pedal, with its perfectly picked guitar patterns and ringing chord progressions. When the band inevitably whip the rest of the song into a squall of precise chaos, it crescendos into a climax worthy of a 100-page reddit thread.
Despite all the jokes, this is the best prog metal record this year. It’s also, short of burning yourself a CDR of Dungeons & Dragons podcasts, the nerdiest record you’re going to listen to this week.
