Animals as Leaders
The Joy of Motion

Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi (as if it were antani, you see it teases, the sbiriguda?), nicknamed "Tosin" by his friends, is the leader and founder of "Animals as Leaders" and a guitarist (and bassist too) with inhuman talent.

The "Animals as Leaders" are a trio that, I cannot refrain from saying it, since noblesse oblige, "kick ass" (in the album that I will talk about, they are assisted by Misha Mansoor on bass, keyboards, and programming, Adam Getgood on bass, production, and mixing, both from "Periphery", and Diego Farias, guitarist of "Volumes", on programming and sound modulation).

"The Joy of Motion" is, for me, the best among the four albums released by the trio led by the "Nigerian" from Washington.

Small parentheses: I did not understand why the previous reviewer identified them as Australian/Aboriginal.

Alongside Abasi, there is guitarist/bassist (since 2015, primarily bassist) Javier Reyes and another monster out of Berklee College of Music, namely Matt Gartska, with Polish origins, but from Hopewell, Virginia, quite a remote and not very lively place.

The eight-string guitars of Abasi and Reyes are the singers of this prog-metal record, while the energy and dynamics of Gartska are the fuel needed to make it marvelous, giving it a decisive upgrade.

We come to the album, which is dark, but not heavy, which is rich, but not overflowing, which is virtuous, but not excessive. There are 12 tracks, with an average duration of about 4'30" that never bore, that keep you glued to listening, without the temptation to disengage, not even for Jehovah's Witnesses ringing your bell at the most unexpected time of the day.

I start from a journey begun, precisely from the ninth stage, which is "Para Mexer," where Tosin's acoustic guitar reaches levels of sublime Latin-sound technique supported by Gartska's spectacular groove, Getgood's bass is powerful and very condensed. Jazz, heavy, Latin, what kind of piece is it? Technically dazzling, compact, and engaging enough to tear your guts out!

From nine we go to ten, not as a rating and not even as a banal demonstration of counting, because as a second step I want to talk about "The Woven Web" (tenth track). You fall brutally into the web woven by Web-Abasi, dazed and hypnotized by his guitar, you are stunned by Gartska's lashes, and you come back to life in total confusion, "slapped" by Mansoor, with the watery background of Reyes.

As they say, there is no ten without eleven, it becomes easy for me to talk about "Mind-Spun". Sweep picking galore for the American-Nigerian who at this point in the album sets aside the funkier and fusion aspects placed here and there in the work and brings to mind the band's self-titled first album from 2009.

"Ka$cade" opens the album excellently, 10" of melody, then bass drum and snare all out, effects and technique textbook, solos, and recognizable melody in perfect musical syntax. A lot indeed.

A bit of drumming violence, with often clean guitars in "Lippincott" and "Air Chrysalis" with some tasteful stop & go. Frankly unexpected "Another Year," with jazz influences, but that holds very well within the context of the album the 3'51" dedicated.

In "Physical Education," plenty of space for Reyes's guitar, which turns out to be melodically pleasing in the metal parentheses, creating a contrast with Tosin's clarity; at the end, theme doubled with taste. Great track and fun video.

Chosen as the first single, "Tooth and Claw" convinces in intentions but does not add much to the already cited talent of Animals as Leaders, certainly a usable track, as well as "Crescent," while in "The Future that Awaited Me," rhythmic combinations dominate and make the track exquisitely complex, consequently less accessible.

The conclusion with "Nephele" is Tosin's deserved solo outburst.

An album that towers and does not necessarily "djents." Thumb up.