From their Facebook page, IA is a shamanic musical/visual concept, designed to induce states of trance and bring the listener beyond the limits of ordinary awareness, into realms of full-blown psychedelia and spiritual insight. The IA experience consists of poly-rhythmic patterns, groovy riffs and deep, psychedelic atmospheres combined with the heavy, powerful sound of straight-forward metal, all bathed in blacklights and wrapped in UV-active decorations. "InitiAtion" contains seven tracks.

"PromethlA" leads off the album. It opens with a heavy, pulsating rhythm and some electronica to go along with the raspy Death vocals. The entire song has a darkness permeating through it. "IA" has some more experimental elements to go along with more of the darkness. Some psychedelic elements come through here as well, and the vocals some with a cadence. "Blackcurrent" is nine minutes in length. Opening with soft tones, you can feel something big coming. It builds with a slow cadence and I am surprised with the clean vocals, adding another dimension to their sound. When the harsh vocals hit, they hit hard, crushing you bones into powder. The song drips with atmosphere as well...what a completely unique sound.

"The Golden King of the Forest" is over eleven minutes in length, opening with folky guitars and vocal chants, before the main riff drops. It builds with a mesmerizing sound. The clean vocals are again unexpected but give more variety to the sound. The song seems to venture out on many paths but always finds its way back to the original sound. "The Initiation" takes a little bit to get going, and as soon as the sound charges in, clean vocals stand on their own with just the gentle sway of clean guitars. That darkness that I talked about earlier is just omnipresent, along with some outer space type sounds, or at the very least, something not of this world. "The Collapse" is a short one-and-a-half-minute instrumental that shows peaks of melody to go along with the flanger effects in the guitar. It brings an odd calmness to the album.

"Skeletonize" closes the album. The Death vocals are utterly attacking in this song, where the guitars build an atmosphere of nihilism. The ability to be both alive and dead is reflected strongly here. Once this album gets a hold of you, the grip tightens around your neck. It really mingles several different sub genres of metal into a cohesive vision of "whatever comes just be ready for it." I was taken on a roller coaster ride through the stars that I did not want to get off of. The description of the band was spot on. This album was a spiritual experience that was completely unique and something that I have never heard before. Someone sign this band now, please!