Between the all too common pitfalls of either dead eyed showboating or aimless repetition, instrumental music is a tricky customer to pull off convincingly. Of recent times, the likes of Animals As Leaders, Plini and Polyphia have broken new ground with inconceivable virtuostic chops, yet it seems that given its somewhat attention sapping and exhausting nature, the genre is forever bound to be wildly hit and miss. Welcomely, the imagination of Born Of Osiris mastermind and six-string wizard Lee McKinney proves to span beyond mere hyper-technical flash:
The overtly upbeat ‘Amanuensis’ with its techni-colour melodies and surging pace see Mckinney at his best, some tight knit dynamics and succinct, artfully hewn turns of pace favouring big, guitar driven hooks over too much structural derring-do. Elsewhere the fearsome riffing gusto of ‘Truthsayer’ and the heavy hitting ‘A Neverending Explosion’ impart at least something of his day-job’s juddering deathcore thunder, albeit with the sort of space-age atmosphere and touches of melodic ingenuity to conjurer images of Steve Vai jamming with Fear Factory.
What is most impressive here is a sharp focus on time-honoured, straightforward songwriting. Indeed, whilst some outrageous playing and labyrinthine weirdness do display a certain amount of grin inducing self-indulgence (just check out that steamy sax in ‘A Clock Without A Craftsman’), the record is underpinned by a sense of compositional restraint, a refreshing verse/chorus framework amongst the glistening arpeggios and shape-shifting dexterity which not only exhibits McKinney’s knack for penning a coherent and tasteful tune, but intensify’s the impact of those huge lead breaks tenfold. An exciting debut.
Tony Bliss 