From their Facebook page, "since emerging from the Edinburgh Metal scene in late 2015, SOMAESTHESIA have quickly spread their reputation for brutal, complex and thoughtful music throughout Scotland and beyond. In the wake of releasing their debut release, 2016's "Path of Least Eesistance" EP, the band found new audiences following supports slots with such varied international acts like CRYPTOPSY, IGORR, and CARBOMB. The band after a successful nine-month promotion of their debut EP, took a seven-month hiatus to regroup and focus on writing their next release, which will be titled "Recidivist," and contains four new tracks.

"Trepanation" leads off the EP. Following a quiet entry, the song comes in angrily, with harsh vocals and heavy and aggressive instrumentation. The vocals are sung in Hardcore style, with a uniform shout that stays in the same range, and is utterly relentless. The music is fairly interesting but there are no variations in the vocals. "Interlude" is just over a minute in length. It barely registers as a song, but was probably meant for some mood-setting material. "The Great Illusion" is close to eight minutes in length. The song features some Progressive elements in the form of meter and key changes, but those vocals cut through much of the music with overly harsh energy. In some respects, they remind me of the band WITH OUR ARMS TO THE SUN, but without that "desert" like energy. It takes a pause after the half-way mark, with trippy elements.

"Contrition" closes the EP. It's a slower, more lumbering song, but still with those unrelenting vocals. It takes a brief pause and then the main sound returns. It ends with a few thuds and then a fade-out. Overall, it was a bit hard to judge a band based on four tracks (one being a short instrumental). But, it was really not revolutionary for me at all. The vocals got old after just one song...I love harsh vocals but these are too intense and take away from the overall sound by constantly getting in the way. Brutal? Yes. Complex and thoughtful? Not in my opinion. I actually found it to be quite one-dimensional. It's a shame however, because you don't hear a lot of bands from Scotland out there.