siLLy puPPy ANIMALS AS LEADERS, initially the solo project of guitarist / bassist Tosin Abasi sprouted a new life-force when it became a bonafide band soon thereafter and this trio of virtuoso musicians has been at it for 15 years now albeit with a change of cast members. PARRHESIA (which means boldness or frankness of speech) is Abasi’s fifth album after a lengthy absence since 2016’s “The Madness of Many.” Tosin returns accompanied by fellow guitarist / bassist Javier Reyes and drumming powerhouse Matt Garstka. This lineup has remained stable for three albums now and PARRHESIA showcases a fine-tuned jazz-fusion based djent trio in fine form.

As expected PARRHESIA is an all instrumental affair with nine tracks that almost reach 37 minutes of playing time. Steeped in the jazz-fusion ethos of great guitarists such as Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny and countless others accompanied by the progressive metal twists and turns of bands like Exivious, Shawn Lane and even Cynic, ANIMALS AS LEADERS also has mastered the technical wizardry of legends like Steve Vai as well as the more majestic djent fueled heft of Meshuggah and even the tech death majesty of Death’s Chuck Schuldiner but there’s really no mistaking the unique sound of ANIMALS AS LEADERS with its classy display of all the aforementioned influencers in a jazz-metal smoothie.

Stylistically ANIMALS AS LEADERS delivers the goods exactly as expected. Chunky jazzified guitar riffs accompanied by precision percussive prowess and hyper stimulating electronica with all those knotty time signature changes and moody atmospheric turbulence. The formula hasn’t really deviated from its trajectory ever since the project’s eponymously tilted 2009 debut which is a boon for those who are utterly addicted to this style of instrumental jazz-fusion magic with metallic outbursts but a little sleepy for those who would expect the band to put the “progressive” in its prog metal and embark on a more adventurous journey that offers more surprises and unthinkable deviations from the norm.

Well, that’s not ANIMALS AS LEADERS is about and while not throwing any curveballs from its regularly scheduled program, does deliver in the technical jazz-metal chops department without missing a beat. Laced with nerdy time signature progressions and whizzing guitar solos fortified with independent drum rolls and bass grooves, PARRHESIA is the epitome of a trio whose three members are comfortable forging their own independent instrumental parts that somehow come together to create a larger sum of the parts. Perhaps ANIMALS AS LEADERS’ greatest attribute is a keen sense of dynamics and how to gently nature any given musical tidbit until it climaxes with an explosive crescendo.

Perhaps too metal for the jazz-fusion crowd and not metal enough for the headbangers of the world, ANIMALS AS LEADERS does precariously sit perched in that in-between zone but where the metal is tamped down the beautiful guitar tones teased out into knotty jazz chord progressions is quite serene. Likewise the Meshuggah fueled djent stomps on speed also offer an intricate display of pyroclastic explosiveness that find the two guitarists of the band becoming more adept at blitzkrieg displays of guitar wizardry. Add the interesting keyboard contributions that deliver the perfect counterpoint and orchestrated atmospheric constructs and it’s easy to get sucked into ANIMALS AS LEADERS beautiful tapestry of atmospheric jazz metal. Overall there are no surprises on PARRHESIA but if a competent dose of the band’s classic style is what you were expecting then you won’t be disappointed in the least.

Warthur Meshuggah may have been the originators of the djent sound of progressive metal, but there was a time when Animals as Leaders looked poised to become the lead band in the subgenre. Whilst the buzz has faded slightly, their debut remains a confident mingling of technically flawless progressive, metal, and jazz influences, in an all-instrumental configuration which gives them ample space to display their impressive skills.

The album is saved from descending into empty noodling by the band's distinctive and very individual sound, and to a certain extent I put the group in the same general category as Ozric Tentacles, in that both are progressively-inclined instrumental bands who are associated with a particular sound so closely that they could almost be accused of making the same album over and over again. On balance, I think Weightless was better than this one, but only a little bit.

siLLy puPPy The brainchild of founder Tosin Abasi from Washington DC, the all instrumental jazz-fusion meets djent project ANIMALS AS LEADERS is more or less his baby although the band tours and presents itself as a full-fledged musical collaboration. This creative outlet began with Abasi’s involvement as the guitarist in the tech metal core band Reflux. After the band ceased to be, Abasi was approached by the metal record label Prosthetic Records who were majorly impressed with his chops and wanted him to record a solo album but Abasi declined feeling the idea was self-indulgent and instead he took a year off to study music in an academic setting to further his growing interest in jazz, classical guitar and composition. After he finished his homework he took Prosthetic up on their offer and then proceeded to let it all rip and roar. He chose the name ANIMALS AS LEADERS after reading the novel “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn which dealt with the subject of anthropocentrism.

In 2009 Tosin released his first album playing his eight-string guitar and bass as well as co-producing with his partner in crime Misha Mansoor who handled engineering, drum programming and mixing. This album got a lot of praise when it came out due to its challenging virtuosic performances that add a lot of variety and spice to the often impressive but sterile compositions that many a virtuoso can dish out. A child of his time, Abasi pretty much handled all the duties formerly requiring an army of talents to accomplish and if he had been ten to twenty years older he could have easily fit in on the Shrapnel Records label that ushered in all kinds of young talented virtuoso guitarists to the world. Some of those artists like Tony MacAlpine and Greg Howe seem like antecedent influences to Abasi’s work, but i also hear some Pat Metheny in some of the lighter fluffier pieces, some mid-tempo ones bringing Allan Holdsworth and even Shawn Lane to mind and of course, the undeniable palm-muted technique of djent tech thrashers Meshuggah in the metallic edge that many of these tracks dish out.

While the influences on board are plenty, what i find refreshing about the debut album by ANIMALS AS LEADERS is how some fresh new takes on these techy fusion guitar jams play out. While the album is clearly created to show off Abasi’s technical wizardry, he was prescient enough to know that wizardry alone for wizardry’s sake had been played out and that extra oomph was needed to guarantee a pleasant listening experience. Well, pleasant this is indeed with lots of chops to excite my hunger for lightning fast guitar runs configured with insanely fast and unpredictable progressive time signatures alternating between quiet cozy numbers and rowdy rockers that unleash monster riffage and extreme bass frenetics.

My only complaint is that this album may be a tad too long for its intensity and contains a couple tracks that seem a little redundant but overall i find this to be a beautifully constructed modern day jazz-fusion guitar and bass extravaganza with beautiful atmosphere, crystal clear production and a musical passion that keeps the quality sizzling. OK, one more complaint. I wish there would have been a real drummer. While the programmed drumming is far from unpleasant or bad in any way, it really is no proper substitute for a talented jazz-fusion drummer who can really bring out the best in a band like classic Bill Bruford did in Yes. Excellent album but not quite a classic.

Warthur Animals as Leaders' third album feels like it's hitting diminishing returns on the djent side of the equation compared to the rather more interesting Weightless, but it manages to just about make the cut thanks to the exploration of jazz fusion and Latin styles that yields a more diverse sound than they've previously enjoyed. At the same time, I can't help but wish that these momentary flirtations with expanding and reconfiguring the group's sound had gone a little deeper, since whilst they add a little spice here, they don't go quite so far enough as to open up enough new creative directions to feel confident about the group's long-term prospects.

Gallifrey Tolerable, Yet Uninteresting

I’ve never liked Animals As Leaders. I guess I should state that upfront, so anyone who wants to disregard my opinion can do so, before they get too invested in reading what I have to say. I really don’t like this whole subculture, the Sumerian records-led teenager brigade of tech-worshippers. Everything about them, from their awful bedroom chugging projects, to their actual enjoyment of memes as cringeworthy and embarrassing as ‘doge’, to the complete obsession with such empty and emotionless music just grates me, to the point where I would actually call them a cult. Like the hippies or goths or hiphopheads of pre-internet times, we now have djentfags, and I long await their demise.

At the forefront of this movement and on the back of every djentfag’s bedroom door are Animals as Leaders, the project of guitarist and “songwriter” Tosin Abasi. I put songwriter in inverted commas for reasons that I will discuss later, since I don’t believe Tosin has written a single actual song in his career. This is their third album, released after a highly regarded debut, and a less popular sophomore, both of which were (in my opinion) compressed and useless pieces of guitar wankery, with absolutely zero sense of time or melody or harmony or even how to construct a guitar tone. Yet they were somehow were lauded by both djentfags and also by people whose opinions I trust and respect. Although they are certainly leaders in the scene, AAL aren’t really a true djent band in the genre definition; only a small portion of their music is dedicated to chuggity chug chug, most of it going towards messy and tuneless riffing, filtered through some ungodly number of compressors, and scattered with some uninspired electronics and even more uninspired ambience.

Although actually, on the whole, The Joy of Motion is Animals As Leaders’ most tolerable release yet. I would hesitate to say ‘best’, because this still ain’t good, but it’s got a significantly larger percentage of moments that I’m not pulling my hair out to or dying of internal bleeding, to the point when I actually enjoy a couple of moments here and there. But on the whole, this is Tosin doing as he has done, genre-wise, and it basically sounds identical to the first two records, with a tiny bit more cohesion and a bit less mess.

“But no!” shout the masses of teenagers in their bedrooms, “this one’s different! There’s bass!”

And yes, there is a bass guitar here, and I’m sure Adam Getgood’s formspring account will be flooded over the next few months with billions of questions about the chain he is using at 3:11 in this song or the Axe FX preset he’s got on at 0:29 in that song, but does the bass really change anything here? No, no it really doesn’t, especially not with that bloody disgusting tone. The Joy of Motion does have some nice grooves every now and then, and the bass is a significant part of this, but it’s not really a major point of difference from the first two albums.

The biggest difference here, one that is also due to Mr Getgood’s involvement, along with his Periphery bandmate Misha Mansoor (who I am less of a fan of), is the production. Sure, the tones here are still pretty awful, the drums are plastic, the bass is way way waaay too compressed (and slapped more often than need be), but at least I can bloody hear them. On the first two albums, the thing that surprised me the most about the people praising them, was the fact that regardless of how technical these riffs are, they’re under a wall of the messiest bloody production this side of Saint Anger and smothered in the highest levels of compression this side of Death Magnetic. No matter how hard I tried to pretend I liked jazz and enjoy Tosin’s use of the D-Locrian mode on that sweep or the triplet run in f#-7-chromatic-minor on that breakdown (which is the only way I can imagine people liking this music), I couldn’t hear anything at all under the waves of spluttering electronic drums and bad atmosphere. But here, I can actually say that I listened to this record three times, and I didn’t have an aneurism.

The production lifts this up tons, but lets be honest, it really just made it a bit clearer, and under the mess that the first two albums were crawling beneath, there isn’t too much here. One of the things I hate about djent, often more than the chugging itself, is the genre’s obsession with ~trendy ambience~. And it’s not as if it’s nice ambience, it is literally the most basic setting on a delay pedal, played with the exact same tone. And with Animals As Leaders being the frontrunners in this scene, you’d imagine them to be a bit more inventive, but no, the useless ambience is here, and in even more abundance than before. It’s not the fact that they are using it that bugs me, it’s the fact that it’s so uninspired, and I have heard it so many times before, combined with the fact that it sounds so mechanical and machine-produced. With the heavy parts being so mechanical themselves, it would be nice if the ambient breaks could have some piano or strings or acoustic guitar or any instrument that has a relatively pleasing timbre.

The heavy parts here aren’t a big improvement, but the production advances definitely mean I can tolerate them a bit more. Some of the riffing here starts to even emulate electronic music, and with the clearer production, actually sounds pretty cool. The very beginning of the album has a very glitchy and quite interesting riff that, while being a complete mess, is made up with some really choppy and nice drumming. I’m not a big fan of the tones, and the organ in the background is laughable, but the drumming here is really something, and would be decent if it weren’t for the terribly robotic kick and snare tones. Solo-wise, this thing is still damn sloppy. I’ve never been a fan of djent soloing, it is so without melody and direction. Call it ‘jazzy’ if you want, and yeah, I’ve always felt the same thing about a lot of jazz soloing to be honest, but to me it’s completely messy.

So what is The Joy of Motion in the end? Is it an improvement? Hell yes it is. Will fans like it? Probably not. Will it go down as significant? Well, no, not really.

Because you see, Tosin does not construct songs, or even melodies or riffs quite a lot of the time, he creates exercises and challenges, the sort of stuff that will fill the next generation of guitar textbooks and inspire legions of 12-year-olds to drop gauge, add a few strings and start chugging. It’s the new jazz, in my view, this uber-technical mess music, pretentious as fuck, great for critical analysis and pretending you have diverse taste, but on the whole meaningless. And I think where The Joy of Motion sits seems a bit vague. There’s enough non-wanky stuff for me to not vomit here, but that will also alienate people who want to come at this album with a pen and notepad. But on the other hand, it has enough messy segments and usual Tosin wank for me to not really want to hear it more than a few times. When I listen to this record, I don’t really enjoy it; I’m more just surprised that I don’t hate it. The Joy of Motion will inevitably be forgotten in the middle ground, wherever Tosin chooses to go next. And honestly, although this hints at an upward trend toward maybe making something I would like, I’m probably not going to bother the man again. He was a great sight to see live and meet, and I appreciate his talent and dedication, but Tosin will always be Tosin, and he will always write this mathematical and mechanical music. And as much as I can tolerate a good deal of The Joy of Motion, I could never really enjoy such soulless music, regardless of any technicality.

4.5/10

Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog