Five years after Aliases first rose from the ashes of Sikth with their terrific EP Safer Than Reality, we’re finally able to hear their first full-length album in all its glory.
Though guitarist Graham ‘Pin’ Pinney has since been back helping his other, reunited band gain some of the plaudits they always deserved, he’s clearly kept enough elaborate ideas for the appropriately titled Derangeable. Obviously, the comparisons to Sikth are hard to ignore, with Uncontrollable Desires and Untangled Mind being the most troublesome labyrinths of unhinged vocals, bizarre narratives, impenetrable polyrhythmic gymnastics and an endless stream of fiendish riffs and melodies. However, in new singer Joe Rosser the band have found someone who can carry a hell of a tune, so for every twisting vortex such as Find Where You Hide there’s the gorgeous refrain of Back To The Start that sits more comfortably along the more opulent side of prog metal, such as Tesseract.
Callous’s sinister undertones give room for the vocals to breathe, Smile All You Like is both chaotic and ridiculously catchy, while seven-minute closer Above The Sky distils the band’s abundance of ideas into one piece that is definitely worth the time and patience it takes to unravel.
Sikth fans will be seriously hoping Pin has enough time for both projects.
