There’s a huge amount to admire about these French tech-death metallers’ highly accomplished fifth outing.
There are some inventive, affecting ideas, such as the proggy lead that opens Inner Alchemy in style, and the impressive shred is hard to find fault with. So it’s disappointing that it never quite sticks in the memory – or, for that matter, maintains the emotional impact some of the better passages provoke.
Partially, this is because the moments of strong personality are followed by moments that could have come from many other tech-death bands – Obscura in particular. This isn’t helped by ineffective vocals, crafting few hooks and creating little atmosphere – occasionally actively breaking the mood, such as the out-of-place guttural moments marring the contemplative character of An Order To Reclaim.
But the real flaw is that the ideas are too tangential; one follows another, and they don’t often enough flow together in a coherent structure, yet aren’t sufficiently different to feel chaotic. This shows flashes of class, but is flawed.