You have to love an opening statement on a band's social media page that describes themselves as 'six polite, well-educated gentlemen that make metal.' Welcome to the world of Seattle, Washington's A SENSE OF GRAVITY - together since 2011 and releasing an EP that same year while solidifying the current lineup. The six-piece perform in a Modern Progressive Metal platform - incorporating a number of different vocal inflections, djent guitar/drum maneuvers, shredding lead breaks at times, and an overall atmosphere that is very energetic and enlightening for the listeners to consume.

Unafraid to add in lounge music/ light Jazz textures in the keyboard/ guitar department for "Breakthrough" before the dazzling fill work of Pete Breene takes command of the aural landscape, that's just one of many side turns A SENSE OF GRAVITY takes. They will be very heavy in a speedy, melodic death manner on "Harbringer" where C.J. Jenkins channels the best death screams going in the underground, but then be almost space surreal for the opening, clean sequence of music that starts off the album on "Wraith" - which 40 seconds later mutates into this PERIPHERY meets Death Metal framework, the word patterns hitting rapid fire and almost following part for part the guitar/ bass syncopation insanity. I hear 'so you think you can just erase a life' in my dreams from this song - a good sign of total brain domination when I not only remember significant musical passages, but also phrases lyrically.

C.J. Jenkins must possess multiple personalities to pull this material off as a vocalist: part death, part screamer, occasionally astounding from a clean perspective, his chameleon oriented efforts are in line with Mike Patton. The blood bursting antics in polyrhythmic oriented "Stormborn" plus the relatively straight forward, heads down groove monster "Ration Reality" showcase the importance of keeping your head in the game and giving the listener at least one-two hook/melodic elements to hang their hat upon, or otherwise all the intricacy, Progressive Metal goes for naught.

It's one thing to incorporate MESHUGGAH, PERIPHERY, SCAR SYMMETRY, SYMPHONY X, and TEXTURES to make things sound as smooth as possible, but A SENSE OF GRAVITY make this work- and it's exciting to see where their music will take us in the coming years. 10 songs in 52 minutes that should be a favorite for the Modern generation who love a multitude of different genres coming together at once for a potent blend. Seek - consume - and spread the word about this mighty impressive band.