Animals As Leaders - The Madness of Many

As long as music continues to exist, there will always be a market for musicians who can play their respective instruments at god-like speeds in varying styles. For many of these often progressively-minded bands who successfully corner this market, technicality is harnessed as the hook that piques the ears of a first time listener and ultimately keeps them coming back for more. Instrumental act Animals As Leaders became such a band with the release of their self-titled debut in 2009. From that point forward, regardless of how much I ended up liking or disliking their subsequent material, knowing the capabilities of Tosin Abasi was enough reason to warrant at least a few honest listens. With The Madness of Many, the band continues in the slightly different path established with their last album, The Joy of Motion. But while this path favors technical flourish over heaviness, The Madness of Many dials it in much more smoothly than their previous effort.

Animals As Leaders - The Joy of Motion

Whether you love or hate the whole djent movement, at least you have the instrumental trio in Animals As Leaders to thank for the good things that developed out of it all. On previous releases like their 2009 self-titled debut and 2011’s Weightless, the group has developed expectations for what forthcoming releases should sound like. For instance, such expectations might include Meshuggah-esque grooves and electronic soundscapes, melded with other-worldly technical abilities from lead guitarist Tosin Abasi; the outcome being something that’s usually both heavy and varied. In other words, the bar was set high for their latest release, The Joy of Motion…..but perhaps a little too high. Ultimately, The Joy of Motion fails to captivate as much as its predecessors had. With the majority of the songs sounding more like warm-up exercises than they do actual songs, it makes you question whether or not this album should’ve actually been called The Joy of Going Through the Motions.