Why?: Reasonably sure I saw this as a review in Metal Hammer and went and listed on YouTube and decided I liked it. Ordered from Amazon.
Tell me more!:
AAL is basically a Tosin Abasi solo album. He plays eight-string guitar (yes, 8) and bass, while engineer Misha Mansoor programmed the drums and keys.
What initially appealed to me about AAL is their intense, complex progressive metal style and the fact they're instrumental. Far too often a great metal band is ruined by terrible or uninteresting vocals, so I tend to gravitate toward instrumental bands to counter that. Instrumental bands have their own problems though...
Wikipedia adds "jazz fusion" to their list of genres, and I'm happy they did, as I'm a bit lost for words myself describing their style. "Progressive metal" isn't enough, as that brings up images of Dream Theater, and that doesn't even begin to describe just how fast and complex this music is.
Generally I enjoy listening to it, but while I'm intensely impressed by how fast and complex and unusual Tosin's guitar riffs are, I do find myself wishing for a bit more melody, and a bit more song structure. Often a band can be so complex, and cram in so many notes, that it starts to sound like noise. AAL aren't quite to that level, as their music is varied enough to keep my ear focused on what they're doing, but I still think a little bit of simple melody over the top of this scattering of notes might sound good. But then, as I said above, if that were vocals, and those vocals were crap, I'd hate the band, so perhaps they can't win? The melody could be a simple guitar part though?
I enjoyed re-listening, and I recognised songs from previous listens, but I'm not sure I'd be able to pick any out as favourites, or ones I might recommend. Perhaps if they were shorter and more focused? I think maybe this music is just that little bit too complex for my mind, although it is an excellent representation of good complex, not just complex for the sake of it.
5/10
