9 out of 10 stars
author: Maelstrom: Jeremy Beals
With a name like "At War With Self," I was expecting more metalcore jackassery;
fortunately, the band is made up of musicians from such bands as Gordian Knot. What is
showcased here is some highly technical, progressive metal that will undoubtedly knock
you on your ass when you hear it for the first or fiftieth time.
The instruments are crystal clear, and have a beautiful, organic tone. The guitar can be
precise at one moment and utterly chaotic at another; leads that appear out of nowhere
are common, and usually soar into the highest heavens, only to later plunge right into
the ambient background melody generated by the synths. The bass is very strong, and
completely on par with the guitar, and is never buried under the rest of the instruments
as it is in many metal releases. Drums are completely on their own ground, sometimes they
give room for breath for the guitar and bass to flirt and dance, become prominent or not;
other times, though, they fuel the insanity by throwing percussive beats timed in
calculated algorithms giving no respite to the technical insanity that follows the
guitars.
It’s odd to find, though, that the largest dynamics found on the disk do not typically
come from the role played between each instrument, as that changes wildly within each
song. Instead, the amazing not-so-subtle dynamics come from the usage of each instrument
in-between the smackings of clarity and disorientation. The perfect example of this would
be the track "Martyr," with its large buildup and natural flustered sound.
Although mainly an instrumental band, the vocals that are incorporated into this album
are undeniably perfect for the songs you find them in. The vocal duties switch between
various musicians, and each vocalist you hear has a distinctively different voice that
really adds to the overall character of the album.
Although the album has the atmospheric quality that I can only describe as "madness" at
times, the music still maintains to be incredibly relaxing in this respect, Acts of God
is in its own right a audio masterpiece. I highly recommend this album to anyone who
actually enjoys instrumentation as done by progressive guitarists.
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12 of 15 stars
author: Babyblaue Seiten: Siggy Zielinski
For Glenn Snelwar, the project leader and guitarist of At War with Self, composing is a struggleful process, and hence the name At War With Self was chosen well. For the second disk of At War With Self Glenn Snelwar, who besides music also has a career as a chemicist, teamed up with old companion and bassist Damon Trotta with whom he already worked in demo recordings back in 1994. Of the line-up of the first album Torn Between Dimensions only Snelwar remained. Also, the musical differences are unexectedly large. According to Snelwar, the musical direction of the second CD would change more towards a prog-rock direction, which is also evident from the use of a singer. For me, an import characteristic of Torn Between Dimensions were the fine structures laid down by acoustic side-instruments such as the mandolin and guitar. However, the end result made a somewhat emotionless impression. For Acts of God however, the most important aspect seems to be the overall dark atmosphere, which can manifest itself through the less dense compositions and song structures. To me, Acts of God is a significant improvement with respect to Torn Between Dimensions. My favorite piece is Choke Loud, in which the shredding guitars and Industrial atmospheres bring happy memories of King Crimson. As a further comparison the recordings of the David Cross Band keep coming to mind. With Acts of God Snelwar and Co have succeeded in making a suggestive and sometimes highly explosive mixture of prog metal, post rock, fusion, prog, elektro and ambient, from which it is hard to refrain oneself.
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12 of 15 stars
author: Babyblaue Seiten:Fix Sadler
This project passed me by during 2005. “Mark Zonder is now doing shred math metal of the mediocre kind” were the few thoughts that came to mind from the review of the debut album. However, I have never actually heard
Torn Between Dimensions.
For the “progrock-dt-show” (also unofficially known as the “Schuli-show” [progshow.de]) one is grateful for each thinkable novelty, which is the reason I laid hands on the second Snelwar disk. The surprise was huge.
Surely, a certain metal heritage can be heard, and this disk definitely does not deal with hymnical sympho songs. But At War With Self is far away from emotionless, dull instrumental metal onany. In addition, I find it quite amazing how close the band reaches a “room-sound”. The disk creates a deeply acoustic atmosphere with the refined drumming and percussion, the use of acoustic guitars, mandolins and bass. The electric instruments are woven into the sound with restrain, with sparsely used “Frippian” licks and touches of keyboard or electronic effects here and there. Key aspect of the disk is that it’s not about showing off musical abilities. On the contrary, the musicianship is used in a restrained and tasteful way, while still remaining complex and impressive.
A singer was also brought aboard who interprets about half of the songs in a pleasant, light and “grungey” way, bringing a mood reminescent of the days of Led Zep. Siggy says: “With Acts of God Snelwar and Co have succeeded in making a suggestive and sometimes highly explosive mixture of prog metal, post rock, fusion, prog, elektro and ambient, from which it is hard to refrain oneself.” I couldn?t say it any better than that. However, I would replace “prog metal” with “70s hardrock” and want to emphasize once again that the disk has a “Rio room sound” atmosphere to it. I wouldn’t be surprised when Acts of God pops up in several polls as Surprise of the Year.
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author: The Dividing Line
At War with Self offer us a new album with their "Acts of God". This band is one of the most interesting sounds I have heard coming out of prog in a while. It is not that they are not prog, but they take the meaning and really express it. If progressive music, means that we are constantly in this unfolding of new ideas, and various juxtapositions of sound, then At War with Self have managed to extend into that definition. While their sound has an ambient resonance, it is filled with a jigsaw puzzle of other influences, including jazz, metal, as well as the typical pomp of the progressive march. While this
could come off as sounding snooty, they pull the trick off by delving deep into meaning. This is not just music for the sake of music, there is an underlying message that the band wants to impart to their listening audience.
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