VALENCE released Laser Baron on June 10^th of 2014.  The EP is their second release for the Westchester, NY based band after Sleepwalker was released in 2012. The band's Facebook page gave me a quick science lesson by informing me that "The name Valence refers to the bonding power of an atom in chemistry, a fitting name for this experimental, tonally eclectic, highly technical band. Also, the artwork involves a scientist getting sucked into a wormhole while military personnel flee in panic and that's pretty damn awesome. It sets your imagination in a particularly science fiction direction that's hard to shake, especially with progressive metal's flirtation with the genre. VALENCE's new EP is like a miniature symphony, it flows, the second "movement" is slower than the first, and, well, all I'm trying to say is that I took one semester of music theory and VALENCE clearly knows what they are doing as far as composition is concerned.

The opening track "Laser Baron" kicks off with a fast-paced, metallic, shrieking riff that borders on the industrial side and kicks into classic progressive-metal.  "Wormhole" is a slower paced track with a haunting intro that acts as a sort of theme for the remainder of the EP. The intro fades and briefly drifts into DEVO territory from 1:09 until about 1:27 where the track becomes a serene, jazz empowered melody that builds back into a heavy metal riff and dissolves into the intro's refrain. It's not fair to call it a 'refrain' I suppose, it's actually the intro for the final track "The Reckoning" but the transition is so flawless I didn't notice until halfway through the track when "The Reckoning" takes on a more aggressive tone and closes with the intro to the first track. Putting the album on repeat is like being swallowed into a wormhole, it's easy to turn this seventeen-minute album into forty-five minute one. Laser Baron is a solid, calculated album that bonds many genres and influences into one stable, prog-based element of modern melodic metal.