Fans of dynamic and thoughtful music are in for a treat with the newest release by Sydney, Australia's, BREAKING ORBIT, 2015's "Transcension." Combining elements from across the musical spectrum, the group blurs the lines between Rock and Metal, and indeed between dream and reality.

Building off of their similarly excellent debut, "The Time Traveller", BREAKING ORBIT provide the listener with dazzling musical landscapes to engage the imagination. "Progressive" is a good word to summarize the many distinct sounds that come together on the album, but instead of dizzying compositions with more time changes than you can shake a stick at, the band focus their energies to create seamlessly flowing songs of incredible beauty.

It's hard to pick favorites, not just because of the album's unified feel, but because of the high quality each song brings, but a good place to start would definitely be "When Isis Starts To Cry," which might be about where the listener starts to shed a tear of their own. From Matt Quayle's powerful, yet sensitively delivered vocals, to the immersive wall of guitars and drums, working in perfect harmony. "Become The Light" similarly invites senses of awe and wonder while its burly, low-end guitar riffs help keep the listener from drifting too far into the clouds.

The percussive riffing in "The Glitch" highlights the strong, rhythmic emphasis of the album, something easy to forget about amidst the sweeping melodic soundscapes, while showing a grittier side of the band than is present for the first half of the album that is no less thoughtful or intelligent. "Namaskar" is another interesting track that includes this hard-to-pin-down tapped guitar lick that has a curious vibe to it, which I enjoyed as a guitar fan since it reminded me a bit of something Christian Muenzner might play.

There's a lot to like on "Transcension", not just for "Prog-Snobs," but for fans of artistically performed Rock and Metal. Every performance BREAKING ORBIT give is powerful, passionate, and well executed, and they cover a lot of ground instrumentally as well as mood/attitude-wise. At 54-minutes long, it's not unreasonable to listen to in a single sitting, and the rewards are more than worth it for the hungry musical mind. "Transcension" is a captivating musical journey that is well worth checking out.<