Progressive Metalcore/Djent band MASK OF PROSPERO formed in Greece in 2014. "Hiraeth" is the band's second full-length album, and has eight songs. "Divided" is the first. The opening notes are heavy and aggressive, with harsh vocals. But the sound cools from there, with meaty bass chugging over clean vocals in the verses. It's a push and pull from there, with near equal doses of anger and acceptance. "Hourglass" is another song with combating styles of brutality with easy moments of melody. The band is talented, but they do need to push themselves a little more on the songwriting. "Exile" opens with smooth, calm tones and the promise of melody. The clean passages are quite well done, with emotive vocals and thick bass guitar notes working with the riff. It's the heavy passages where the need to push themselves.

"Lethe" is the longest on the album. It features some time changes amidst the heavy chugging riff.  The length of the song gives some time for the melodies to develop, and they do a nice job expressive themselves. "Amal" begins with very emotive vocals, but honestly, I can't tell if it is from a high tenor voiced male or a guest female vocalist. Either way, the song is dreamy and expressive. "Lament" is another slow-paced song with some Djent qualities out of the opening riff. It might be the pacing here that I have the biggest concern with. It doesn't allow the band to fully explore the music, because much of it is based on open chords. They are so close though to that golden ring that they can see it.

"Kyma" begins with charming piano notes and a solemn sound from clean, harmonized vocals. A heavy sound roars in from there, but the melody remains. "Horeeya" closes the album. The pacing is little faster. Clean vocals lead to harsh ones, and you can feel their pain here. In this song, they do a better job with the heavier elements, because they remain quite emotive. Overall, this album has a lot of promise. The band has talent, and they do nice job of developing melodies. Chris has a really nice voice, especially in the cleans. Where I believe they need the most work is in the development of the heavier elements. As I mentioned above, most of the songs are slow-paced, which means that one of their only choices is to ride out these passages in the open E chord. This technique can get old and tired sounding after too long. But, I remain very interested in the band's future releases.