With an epic technical Death Metal sound that I can only compare to the mighty Gojira, with a flick of Meshuggah, that Steven Wilson and Devin Townsend overlooked; Without Waves released an incredibly fresh and versatile heavy album.

There’s no “Djent” here, and there’s no whiny melodic clean vocals. What there is is very pleasant and appealing melodic vocals that are present just enough to provide a sense of calm in the midst of chaos.

If you like jazzy progressive rhythms and interludes woven into controlled demolition… that’s an essential part of what you’re going to hear.

I would be watching these guys over the next 5 years. Actually, throw these guys on tour with Ne Obliviscaris, and Tesseract, and I’ll be happy.

I’m not picking any standout tracks for this, as it’s meant to be an album you listen to front to back. I will say that “Us Against” is a 9 minute track that has a certain tension build to it, and when you THINK that all Hell might break loose, it go into a very Modest Mouse direction. Which in many ways is neat, and it’s fitting. Again… refreshing.

Oh, you thought it’d automatically blast your face off after that? No. You’re going to relax to the beautiful “Never Know Quite Why” first, THEN get ripped apart by “Victorian Punishment”.

I don’t want to describe too much. It’s too good to spoil with details. It’s a very artsy piece of work, and is a definite top 20 of 2017 period. Prog fans, enjoy the hell out of this one!

P.S. The last song is the craziest one.

Rating? 4.5/5

Reviewed by Marcus Miller

#WithoutWaves #Lunar