The Advent Equation - Limitless Life Reflections
Independent Release
Melodic/Progressive/Death
8 songs (63:00)
Release year: 2012
Reviewed by Rob

The intro to the first track Glimpse of What May Be is very comforting. It's like getting a very pleasing appetizer in a restaurant - a delicious, sleazy plate of awesomeness. The comfort is in knowing that if it's this good early on, you can probably expect a lot more goodness from whence it came.

Let me get the vocalists out of the way first. Margil H. Vallejo, who also plays bass, is a perfectly competent if slightly mundane lead singer for The Advent Equation. He has a haunting, storytelling tone that lends itself well to the eeriness of the music, but I have a hard time believing him sometimes. His performance becomes more convincing as the album progresses. Daniel Cordoba is the guitarist and growler who makes himself known periodically, but he is misused somewhat in the sense that a lot of the heavier segments are mysteriously missing him and the more basic transitional movements have him spilling his guts out. There also appears to be a female vocalist who lends a hand with some catchy harmonies but I cannot find any information on who she is.

As far as the music itself goes, Limitless Life Reflections is really something special and a pleasure to listen to. It's a mostly mid-tempo affair, with blast-beats being kept to a minimum, but there is plenty of rhythm experimentation and sassy switching of time signatures to keep prog fans guessing. There's a tasteful amount of straight-up Sixth-like djent happening at just the right times - just when you need a good solid block of heaviness to seal the deal. Keyboard player Esau Garcia deserves a mention for the incredible flourishes he adds to each track. Ranging from melancholy piano arpeggios, to goofy Danny Elfman tinkles that dance and tease, to creepy organ jabs, his playing brings a lot of extra color to an album that is already rich with creativity. The influences here are many and varied and delivered passionately through open-minded musicianship.

However, there are moments when the inspiration that drives Limitless Life Reflections seems to dissipate and fall flat. Certain passages are a little boring and pointless but it happens very rarely. When it does happen, you can count on something unexpectedly delightful to come right after it. Another thing to note about this album is that there are no reprisals, as far as I can tell. There is no repetition of any melody or section after it happens once. Fair enough, that's what the word 'progressive' implies, but there really is no cohesiveness here at all. It makes for a fluid listen - you constantly feel like you are moving forward, making it hard to pinpoint what exactly makes certain songs special. All of them are full of excellent ideas, but are barely distinguishable in themselves. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on if it floats your particular yacht or not. One thing's for certain, this group of virtuosic Mexican fiends know exactly what they are doing and the strength of this material alone should bring them far and quickly from obscurity.

Killing Songs :
Purification Lapse, Afterlife Evolutionary
Rob quoted 87 / 100
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