Protozoan Battle Hymns
by Rhododendron

From Mercury 09/24/2021 21:26 | #274148

I love these folks' sound. A cool mix of punk/hardcore, really intense prog rock/metal, and noisy abrassive rock. Not sure the playing is quite mindblowing or fully up to the level I'd like it - slightly sloppy and just not quite as "wow!" as I maybe want from proggy stuff - this can be a plus also becuase there is a approachability and a humanity in these musicians rawness. Not saying they are bad or sloppy through and through becuase they do indeed seem to be really accomplished musicians. Just not like King Crimson, Mastodon or even black midi levels of precision and brilliance. May just be how its recorded. Again, this factor can be a positive or negative depending on how I look at it and, really, depending on the track.

The songs and the actual structure of these songs and this album is solid but nothing that kept me fully locked in. Its a pretty cool debut effort and I look forward to this band's future releases. But theyu just haven't put the whole package together. When the band is really digging in and manages to mix the ferocity of post-hardcore with the unadulterated artistic choices of both avant-prog or brutal almost punky prog as well as be sloppy or noisy as well, its musical bliss and a straight pure shot of what I like to hear. It just feels like those moments of AWE are rare. Mostly a really solid heavy prog punk album and if you love Red by King Crimson, nice, because these guys do too I think.