Well, a bit of a confession is in order first. I am not a fan of the Mathcore genre. Never was. I've also never had the chance to review a mathcore CD. So here it is, with this out of the system, let's roll!

The album's opener, "Denmark", opens the album, with a relentless assault of very dirty guitars, heavy and lightning fast drums, and distorted as hell vocals. Tasty! The C part is a melodic break, something I wouldn't quite expect of a Mathcore from my very limited experience with the genre. All in all, short but to the point. Moving on to the second song, "Empty Mouth"... Same over-distorted vocals, the guitars are more interesting, with a melodic intro, sliding quite naturally into a repetitive riff, which actually succeeds in not boring me out. Actually on the contrary. By mid song I've found myself starting to move my head, which means this beast of song has proven it's point. It grew on me, liked basically everything but the vocals here, but this type of vocals is part of the genre, so I can live with that too...

"The Solidity Of A Ghost" starts with a heavy as a sledgehammer blow to the face bass solo, turning straight into a very fast and very technical song. This is probably the perfect song to explain the genre to someone unfamiliar with it. It has everything, from great technical ability, to modulations, to breaks back to the intro, and hey, I'm still headbanging! "Unacceptable" is another song of the same type, total package. "These guys will make me get into the genre by the end of the album!" was the thought I've had throughout the album, and it was a well placed one, because except the vocals, the songs are a lot of fun, a lot of ability, it's visible that a lot of thought was put into putting them together, and knowing when to finish them.

"The Engine 2.0" is a song that has reminded me a lot of THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, sounds a lot like them (And I wouldn't know if it's just a reference or the whole genre sounds like this, so take this as a compliment), short, violent, brutal, mathematical, fun.

The album ends with a 6 minute beast of song called "Familiar Face On A Stranger", this beast has reminded me of MASTODON actually more than anything else, again, beside the vocals. The song flows well, you don't feel that the song is as long as it actually is, you drown in the super technical and interesting guitar work, very very good.

All in all it is a Mathcore album. One I've never expected to review. It has definitely surpassed my expectations. Very interesting, everything on it is in strictly in place, and I like everything about it - except the vocals. Sorry, just not my cup of tea.