Welcome to NK’s Album Flashbacks, where the Negative Kitty shares her thoughts on not-so-recent albums. Today’s album review: The Joy of Motion by Animals as Leaders!
Ahhhhhhhhhhh I friggin’ lovesauce Animals as Leaders, fam. Fr fr.
Mmkay, let’s just chat — let’s just rap for a second and chew the shite about this fine installment in the AAL catalogue. The Joy of Motion, buddy. Daaaaaaaaam.
Okay so back up. For the uninitiated, Animals as Leaders are a progressive metal group from Washington, DC. DA CAPITAL!!!! That’s what that’s short for. Check it though, they make fire-ass DJENT. Which if you don’t know what that is — it kinda sounds like “DUNLN DUNLN. DUNLN DUNLN.” Say that out loud real fast, repeatedly, at least 8 times or until you’re out of breath. And don’t forget to roll the L’s. “DUNLN DUNLN.” That’s what djent sounds like more or less.
Look, this album slays buddy. Sh*te’s frickin’ danksauce. Check out that track above. “The Woven Web”!!! My personal favorite on the album, with one of the most le epic beans breakdowns of all time. Dukka-da DEOW deow. Duh-duddlah dukka dukka dukka duh DWEOW neow. Duhnuhnuh nun-nun dukka DEE duhkulalah-DEE. Yeah, that pretty much says it all. Not only is this song fuego. It’s fueg-ington ramirez.
Now, the opening track Kascade is fuego AF as well. But let’s look at a few deeper cuts from this 2014 slobberknocker of a record, hmmmmmmm?
“Tooth and Claw” – Yeeeeeah, mane. I have teefs and clawz so this is obvs a top contender. Pretty danksauce solo on this one too. Me likey!
“Another Year” – Ooooooh this is a classic. I love that acoustic on there yo and I love the places we go with the progressions on this one — texturally, this track is just airy and heavenly. My pinky stays out when I listen to it — it’s a sophisticated track!
“Nephele” – This one just frickin’ crushes start to finish big dawg, and it has some great recurring riffs. My favorite is the long breakdown at the end with the dramatic alien noises over it — mmmmm percussa-licious!
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