Exactly 2 years after "Gabriel" we can enjoy another album from Believer. It sounds a little less thrashy and a bit more progressive, but it still has the Believer sound. If no one would have told me the name of the band, I think I would have guessed it. They always have a kind of typical Believer guitar sound and the harsh vocals of Kurt Bachman are very recognizable.
Pestilence, Voivod and old school thrash influences have always been part of their music, but there is less thrash influences on this album and they experiment more, like sonic sounding parts with drum computers in "Currents". They have integrated more melody, and dynamics and incorporated melodic vocals and layered vocal harmonies. Fans of the 'Gabriel' album will experience some musical changes, but I don't think they will dislike the album. Believer has always experimented and changed musically from album to album. I'm not sure if fans of the early years will be pleased. There are a lot of clean parts but fortunately there are also some thrash songs like "Clean Room", "Traveler" and pieces of "Entanglement" (listen to the bass!); which sound very old school. Whether of not that will be enough for the early day fans, I don't know. A band that comes to mind too is Cynic; "Ego Machine" is one of the songs that make me think of them - the guitar parts are very technical and there are many tempo changes.
Not a record full of songs that stick immediately, but open-minded Believer-fans will have no problem with it. Another positive is that this record has the best production of all their albums. Voivod, Cynic and of course Believer fans: check this album out.
