Third Ion is a band that draws their influences from science fiction, video games, and the wonders of the universe. Its band members come from a wide background from bands like Into Eternity, Devin Townsend Band, and more. The album kicks off with a cool little 8-bit tune, something you’d hear out of an old arcade game. I was very excited by this initially as I haven’t heard too much chiptune/metal, but almost as soon as it began, it was cut short by a heavy guitar riff. Other than a verbatim restatement of it, as this song goes on there is little trace of any use of the style found in the first few seconds of the song. In fact, there isn’t much in this entire album that really works with that style. So, for me at least, that was a little disappointing. But I was quickly over that as the album carried on, because, to put it simply, this is a fantastic album.

Third Ion is much easier to identify as a good prog band that sticks pretty closely to the “standard” progressive metal style. The guitar tone is very crisp and very pleasant. The electronic sounds that happen are very cool and very appropriate. The songs themselves have a great deal of variety and each one offers its own unique flare. The instrumentation found in the album has a great deal of nuance and it’s evident that they put a lot of care into how they put it together.

With not much else to say about this album, I’m very glad I had an opportunity to give it a listen.