WAKE have never stood still musically. Whether with blindingly fast tempos, lacerative metallic riffs or achingly ominous, thunderous doom, the band has never feared bending any musical theme to its will. One constant theme has always held every song together, throughout the band's decade-long history: pure, depressive void. WAKE push to redefine how expansive and dynamic Grindcore and extreme metal can be. After releasing their last LP Misery Rites to critical acclaim, and various festival appearances, including the Decibel Metal and Beer Festival, Maryland Deathfest, Southwest Terror Fest, and many more, WAKE carry on in 2020 and beyond - scorning the weak, ignoring the trends, and digging heels into the road.

"Dissolve and Release" is a slow builder, it has a low tempo for the intro side, but builds up telling us something bigger is coming. The vocals piece the sound and things look like they will pick up. This is more of a Blackened Death aspect sounding like KAOTEON do, it's a decent sound. Its nothing we've never heard before, but it is executed well. It's a good intro song

"Kana Tevoro (Kania! Kania!)" continues the feel and tempo from the previous song. The pace isn't electric, but it is well-controlled. It does feel like it could go higher and it does slightly, but still not as expansive as it could be. The melodies are controlled well, with a few different ideas as far as style is concerned.  The song does not expand enough away from the previous track to make the album change any real direction

"This Abyssal Plain" improves the tempo slightly, again. This one has more aggression, but the melodies do not seem to match the vocals with their aggression. The tempo drops pretty quickly into the song, which is disappointing. The album felt like it was going to explode into life and create more for itself, but it has gone down the opposite path. The melodies are gently and easy to enjoy, but also easy to be ignored as they no longer have much aggression for you to look out for.

"Elegy" takes over from where "This Abyssal Plain" left off, which is a seemingly quiet melody, its not really building as much as just being there. The song is only short and is a bit pointless, if they wanted this bit in, they should have just had it in the previous

"Mouth of Abolition" actually sparks life into the album, adding an additional amount of tempo to make the song start to places. It still feels like it is being held back though, not allowing enough progression and expansion. The song remains the same as the opening ones, it is an improvement, but it is only just. There is not enough going on. With a longer song you expect a few changes, but there is only one and the end it fades away.

"Paean" is another pointless intro-style song. It doesn't need to be a song on its own.

"Torchbearer" builds up the pace once more, but if it is like the rest of the album you know it wont really go anywhere. It takes a while to actually do anything. Then when it kicks in, it is so subdued that many will instantly skip the song. There is no pace at all any more. The added aggression on the vocals fails to spark anything, which is becoming the story of the album. This is a long song, it surely has to kick in and get better. It kinda does midway, there is more pace and tempo, which instantly makes the melody better. It makes the song better, but not in a way that we haven't heard thus far.

"In the Lair of the Rat Kings" has a decent tempo to start and the aggressive vocals help to pace the way with the best opening melody on the album this far. Then it starts to slow down. Again. Luckily this does not last and the raw aggression comes seeping through making this a great melody. They can't help but slow things down, the change of pace is always so noticeable and effective but in a negative way. This one is more like a valley, high pace, low pace then high again, so it actually ends strong. Finally.

"Monuments to Impiety" keeps the high pace going, never seeming to end from the previous song, it Is effective. The song has a great melody that works well to create more of an impact than most songs on here. The pace being high actually kick starts my interest, its annoying that they waited this long into the album to do songs like this. It's a decent Blackened Death Metal vibe going through here.

"The Procession (Death March to Eternity)" is a long one to end on. It is similar to the previous in the heaviness but has significantly slowed down, but not as bad as others before it. The song is decent enough and would end the album better with more pace and aggression, you just feel it will fade out. The melodies are so much better than I was giving credit for, they go on beautifully for a while and slowly come to an end making this song another solid effort on the album

This album has so much potential, it could do great things and make a true statement for the band, but it never hits the top barriers, some songs don't even get close. It is easy to listen to as background noise, but nothing steps up to grab my attention until the end and by then many will have written it off and not hear the better songs