TEMPLE OF ELLORA is a Progressive/Deathcore band hailing from Baltimore, Maryland. "Alpha Pegasi" is the band's second release and contains nine tracks. "Alpha Pegasi" leads off the album, with heavy guitar strikes and Deathcore vocals. The Progressive elements come into play with the meter shifts, and I love the dark ambiance that lingers in the background. "Devoid" is a faster moving song with a little more fanciful guitar work. The vocals however are relentless in their delivery. "Trajectory Shift" opens with some more of that wonderful ambiance. I wonder how it's created because they don't have a keyboardist. The guitars venture out a little more here, not following conventional paths.

"Dust" features a more mid-tempo swing, complete with pig squeals, and some odd connections in the music. You can call these Progressive elements, but they sure are odd. It's almost devoid of melody. They do some exploring in the second half of the song, and here is where some melody flows. "Deep Delta" is a slower moving song. At this point in an album, you are ready to make some conclusions. While I like what I hear so far, it is starting to become a bit repetitive. "In the Balance" opens with some heavy guitar strikes and some more of those odd melody lines. I am starting to think this is done on purpose, but it does make it hard for the band to follow just one line overall. Instead, the riffs are always changing, which is exciting, but hard to follow.

"Amygdala" is really the first song that has a different opening sequence. It's actually quite pretty, with the clean guitars creating a sense of melody. But the vocals come in pretty quickly and lay waste to much of what was built in the opening. As is often the case in this genre of music, a lot is demanded from the drummer, and DJ keeps up nicely...at times blasting beats like a machine gun but always keeping the meter in check. "Amygdala II - Brain Waves" closes the album. It builds nicely with some atmosphere and melody in the opening lines. I feel if they did this a little more, that is let the album breathe a little more, they would really be onto something.

This album just needs a bit of variation; a bit of diversity. Five of the nine songs are nearly the exact same running length; three-and-a-quarter minutes. Some of the formulas feel recycled again from one track to the next. It's obvious that they have a honed product, but it feels too safe to rely on that...especially considering the thousands of other Metal bands out there trying to get signed to a label and take a piece of the pie. The musicianship is actually quite good; they just need to focus on expanding their songwriting repertoire.