✦✦✦✧ A highly anticipated prog metal album from Bay Area heroes does not disappoint. Newcomers to the band (and scene veterans) Evan Brewer on bass and Kyle Schaefer on vocals add a anchoring fullness to the sound, which is even shreddier than ever. And it’s nice to hear a return to a more dynamic sound.

✦✦✦✧ Welcome back to the Three Star club, boys! The band step back toward a sound reminiscent of “The Harvest Wombs” or “The Flesh Prevails”, and thankfully away from “Dreamless”‘s trancepop leanings. This is still atmospheric and moody, but also aggressive as it is technical. New singer Antonio Palermo brings a screechier clarity to the proceedings, which I think works well for the music here.

✦✦✧✧ The band’s third album finds them slightly farther afield from their signature progdeath sound and into trancier territory. While laudable in their ambition, and not completely surprising given the band’s trajectory up to now, their choices make it harder for the listener to build up a head of steam, as the heavy parts are isolated islands awash in a sea of atmospherics and tonalities.

★★★★ For a band who made their bones with a solid reputation for technical death metal, this album is more firmly grounded in an ethereal territory that sounds more like Cynic than anything else. What makes that notion remarkable is just how successfully and frequently that intricacy is mated with shredding and screams.