So Canadian Thrash is something I have always been familiar with right from the good old CORONER and ANVIL days, and that has catapulted the huge number of Thrash Metal bands emerging from the country. Take for example the band here, EXPAIN, blasting Progressive Thrash Metal for over 40 min. This is a very interesting album.

Starting of the album with a Jazz acoustic intro in "Bacchus" was a pleasant surprise before blasting into the heavy sound of EXPAIN with "Aggressions Progression". The songs are fast paced, and move like a rhythmic train and waiting to crush you into pieces, and are occasionally filled with a touch of Jazz and Punk. The vocals of Daniel Brand are impressive as he brings in low tempo screaming vocals, not so commonly heard these days in Metal. The bass of Nikko Whitworth adds a whole new dimension to the music created by the axe-men Pat Peeve and Eric Morrison. The drums of Ryan Idris are fast paced, but sometimes sound as if they are made by some drum machine software. If it's really him on the drums, then boy he is very talented, hahaha. In fact, individually the musicians come across as supremely talented in what they do, though the combined effort doesn't add up to the expectations sometimes. The album fluctuates between low tempo and high tempo in all the songs, and this is an album where it takes multiple listens to consume the album. I could only appreciate the beauty of the album over the course of time with multiple listens. Some of the songs like "Don't Worry, The Worst is Yet to" are very cheesy and sound really interesting to a fan in me who isn't really into Progressive Metal.  The riffs are catchy in parts, the music as a whole is innovative as it was meant to be by the musicians, but the sad part is the novelty and the freshness starts to ware off in the latter half of "Just The Tip" as the album tries too hard to keep the listener interested and fails eventually. But this is not a bad album by any means, and in fact a great album for a lot of aforementioned reasons.

While the production is good for the large part, I would have been more convinced if the vocals were made a bit louder. It's a major surprise to find that this talented band is still unsigned,but then I guess it's only a matter of time. So go dig this album if you're into Progressive Thrash Metal as you won't be disappointed.