East Of The Wall - The Apologist

If you guys are down with some chunky, psychedelic tunes, this is a great band to groove to.Following in the recent (and hopefully growing) trend of technical bands that have a strong sense of melody, East Of The Wall, is a New Jersey band made up of a lot of different influences that manages to make something greater than just the sum of its parts. Their latest CD, The Apologist [Translation Loss Records], is a great example of what the next generation of progmetal can do.

Now to be clear, the metal part of their progmetal categorization is a little misleading. They're really more like a heavy The Mars Volta with less of an ethnic feel, or maybe a heavy, modern, American version of Pink Floyd. So while there's less "balls and chunk"tm to their overall sound as far as metal is concerned, the familiar dynamics, driving grooves, and instrumental exchanges are there in spades. Incidentally, this is one of those bands where the constituent members seem to be constantly involved in playing and writing music - if not in this band, then in one of the many side projects they're all involved with (like the guys in Dream Theater or Symphony X).  So you can't help but get the idea that their songwriting muscles get regular exercise, leading one to think that's a major component of the better musicians'/bands' success in the field.

Standout Tracks: The Apologist, False Build, Underachiever

The Bottom Line: Call 'em progressive stoner metal, melodic technical metal, or whatever, but either way you slice it, East Of The Wall is a band replete with great ideas and talent. Fans of this niche sub-genre should run out and get this album ricky tick.

- Genghis loves to groove and loves crazy talented musicians...