Kayo Dot steps forth from the mist in which he is saturated. Kayo Dot strides forward as the shadows shift around him. He breathes the morning air and the limitless potential captive inside its rush. He meanders throughout a rocky waste, dancing, weaving fabric of his thoughts through evenings and pre-dawns. Wherever he goes, the mist writhes about him, and the fabric trails behind. The mist sometimes envelopes the fabric as they are whipped by wind, and they flow as one energy behind Kayo Dot. Kayo Dot is ready to do something that he hasn't done in 2 years. He performs his ritual then begins. He mixes the mist and tapestry and begins making emotions and characters out of it. The characters are shades against a craggy landscape. He makes emotions heavy and profound, swinging them around himself until in a blinding flash, Kayo Dot's job is finished. An etheric vinyl record that was produced by the flash now sits on a small, ornate stone table.

Toby Driver hears that Kayo Dot has come awake again, and he travels to the rocky waste in search of what will come to be known as Blue Lambency Downward. After three nights in the rocky waste, Toby Driver is starting to tire, but he knows that only he can bring this gift to mankind. He presses on until finally, in the afternoon glow, he finds the treasure. Now, he must begin the rocky trek back to town where he will press Blue Lambency Downward and spread it throughout the world. And this time, there are woodwinds.

Rating: 9/10

Thy Catafalque manage the impossible. No one can maintain an atmosphere composed of such earth-crushing heaviness, such vibrant textural earthiness, and such a range of timbre like Thy Catafalque. Even the lyrics contribute to the album's massive, ancient atmosphere. I didn't imagine an endeavor like this was possible before I heard it. But Thy Catafalque doesn't just maintain that atmosphere on Rengeteg; they mold it into brilliant structure after brilliant structure. The grace with which the compositions dance around while maintaining their astonishingly heavy and organic atmosphere is astounding. The music weaves back and forth between deeply moving post-black metal progressions driven by 50-megaton blast beats and an eclectic range of industrial, rock, and folk, all the while maintaining that impossible atmosphere. Renegeteg contains some of the heaviest moments of music that I've ever encountered yet doesn't dwell on them like many bands do; it weaves them into its rich tapestry of sounds. Tamas Katai, who performs all the music on the album except the cello and clean vocals, is one of the most brilliant composers that I've come across. This is the first album of his that I've listened to, and it is an absolute masterpiece. Tamas is an artist of an incredible magnitude.

Rating: 9/10

With their third album, Haken has taken a Gentle Giant pill to add a further sense of quirky eclecticism to their sound. Unfortunately, the end result is a less impactful album than their masterpiece, Visions. Haken doesn't pull their stab at transcendence on this installment, but it ultimately falls short of its goal. The trademark Haken use of wildly eclectic genres is still present; everything from video game noises to blast beats crop up on The Mountain, but the actual song-writing and album structure prevent them from reaching the summit that they are after. Sometimes, it feels like the band is trying to do too much and fails to adequately develop their ideas. Even though there's effective repetition of musical themes throughout the album, they never seem to build on each other in a meaningful way. The concept behind the album is moving on a human level, and there are some moments of isolated brilliance on The Mountain, but as an album it doesn't quite reach its mark.

When reviewing The Mountain, I may have sounded more critical than I would for another band, but with all the praise this album has gotten and with Haken's previous release as a comparison, I don't think The Mountain travels as high as it intends. That being said, it's still an excellent album from one of the best modern progressive rock bands, and it's definitely worth picking up after listening to Visions.

Rating: 7/10

Mr. Bungle's music is, objectively, good and original, but I just become bored while listening to it. I feel like (and this could get me shot) the band just goes through the motions of creating avant-garde music without any really conviction and, as a result, I don't get any impact emotional or otherwise out of it. It seems like the quirky style of the music is largely arbitrary, as if they spun a "what type of music should we play" wheel every 30 seconds. There's a lack of coherence and direction because of this. There are good moments, but they often seem contrived and fail to make the album as a whole worth listening to. I have yet to understand why Mr. Bungle is considered to be one of the top avant-garde bands around.

Rating: 4/10

Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue shows a different, but related, facet of Kayo Dot as did Choirs of the Eye. As far as the band's music is describable in these terms, there are post-metal elements on the album, but Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue exhibits more atmospheric chamber tendencies than its predecessor.

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Gemini Becoming the Tripod is chaotic on a cosmic level and features some of Driver's most tortured, gripping vocals to date. It winds up like in a slow death march, building in tension one twist at a time, until the coil reaches its breaking point, and the listener is catapulted into a remote sector of the universe where the stars shine grey and copper. And then... silence. Song rating: 10/10

Immortelle and Paper Caravelle is one of Kayo Dot's most beautiful pieces, and my ears interpret it as an audio manifestation of the white "copper tongues" on the album cover. The music shimmers and waves back and forth like a fragile organism deep beneath the sea where little light reaches. It is peaceful there, as if a white blanket of multitudinous tongues envelope the listener with gentle metallic clanking. The piece ends with gentle waves of plucked violins which transition to layers of repetitive violin melodies before fading to silence. Song rating: 9/10

Aura on an Asylum Wall is a brooding, jazzy track which meanders along until its pace suddenly increases and without warning bursts into a violent noise section with static-y vocals. The song is strong, but it doesn't seems as well-developed as the two preceding pieces. Song rating: 8/10

___ On Limpid Form shows Kayo Dot succumbing to the fate that their music was always liable to fall victim to; it implodes on itself. The track begins and ends as a dark, spacious piece of music, but in between there is about 10 minutes of atmospheric meandering that adds nothing to the song or the album. There are successful moments in the song, and it certainly maintains a strong sense of its atmosphere, but it is too unfocused to succeed as a piece of music. I suppose something this atmospheric was a necessary centerpiece for the album, but the band takes it slightly too far. Song rating: 6/10

Amaranth the Peddler slowly drifts up to the water's surface and reveals a scene to the listener. The song opens with straight-forward (though restrained) vocals, but it slowly pans out to a monotonous, minimalistic musical landscape. Although there is a person in the scene, he is a dot against the twilight-lit sea. And all fades to silences as wind blows at the end of the song. Song rating: 8/10

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I initially gave Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue 8/10 because of its weak atmospheric piece, but I decided that was too harsh a rating. Despite its imperfection, the album stands as an incredible musical achievement, and I can't regard the album as a whole as anything other than a masterpiece.

Rating: 9/10