Anyone familiar with this band will immediately know that their albums are not easy listening. Their incredibly dissonant style of death metal takes many listens to acclimate to, even for the seasoned ear. This music is written to be experienced, and sometimes that comes at the cost of the enjoyment of the listener.
My initial reaction to this album was "I don't know if I like this or not." From experience that is probably about the best response I can have to an album. It means that I will be coming back to it time and time again to determine if I like it. The repeated exposure makes it so that the album works its way under my skin and begins to stick with me in ways that most "normal" albums do not.
The Approaching Roar is one of the more appropriate album title's I've heard in a while. It describes the music contained within perfectly. The riffs (if you can call them that) have this ebb and flow to them where it sounds like a beast coming out of a deep slumber. Slow, quiet, and brooding at one moment only to explode into a chaotic flurry of noise, semi structured riffs, and blast beats.
I really like how the band has structured this album. A large portion is exceedingly quiet for a death metal album of this caliber. In these sections a single guitar will be strumming a riff and only hinting at the insanity that is soon to follow. The fact that this happens over and over again is critical to the nature of The Approaching Roar... it makes it stand out from so many of the other dissonant bands that go 110% all the time.
I still don't know what I think of this album on a whole yet. It's too soon to make a final judgement yet. What I do know is that this is the first of many times that this album will be hitting my turn table... and likely it will work its way higher on my list of albums that I enjoy greatly.
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