Progressive metal act Last Chance to Reason are starting to create quite a buzz, and there's a reason why. The five piece band from Maine are set to release their new CD on Prosthetic Records, titled Level 3, and it's one that should take that buzz to the next level. Mixing their prog with plenty of melody, atmosphere, as well as a healthy dose of technical extreme metal, Last Chance to Reason are sure to find plenty of fans, especially those who can't get enough of acts such as Between the Buried & Me, Cynic, Opeth, Animals as Leaders, Scale the Summit, Obscura, The Faceless, Protest the Hero, Tesseract, and Periphery.
No shortage of stop/start complex riffery & rhythms to be found here, and Michael Lessard does a fine job of switching between soaring clean melodic vocals and a venomous death metal/hardcore styled growl. The dual guitar attack from AJ Harvey & Mike Abdow is potent, as the duo lay down some crushing riffs and sizzling lead lines. Most impressive however are the nimble drum fills courtesy of Evan Sammons and the acrobatic, almost fusion inspired bass lines from Chris Corey. These two drive the textured "Cosmos-The Pattern Forms" with some seriously complex grooves over which Harvey and Abdow can deliver the massive and quite intricate guitar mayhem. There are also some well executed atmospherics throughout the album, and while I'm not sure they are created using keyboards or guitar synth, it adds the right amount of coloring in many spots. Technical prog-metal fans will love the staccato riffing on "A Glimpse of Omniscience" and the weaving, undulating arrangements of "The Escapist". There's some lovely melodic prog as well, like on "The Artist" and "Adrift II-A Vision Ends", but even on the tracks featuring some lush melodies & arrangements there is still a strong showing of metallic bombast & complexity present.
Level 3 is sure to raise plenty of eyebrows amongst the modern progressive metal faithful, and I can see this band becoming one of the must see and hear acts in the genre within a short amount of time. Recommended.
Track Listing
1) Rebirth
2) Adrift I-A Vision Begins
3) Cosmos-The Pattern Forms
4) A Glimpse of Omniscience
5) Adrift II-A Vision Ends
6) The Escapist
7) The Dictator
8) THe Artist
9) Awaiting
10) Transcendence
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