Sunday: Animals as Leaders - Inamorata

     Your belated Sunday song is one that's been sitting on my list of tracks to post about for a while now, a groovy and shreddy tour de force that's always been one of my favourites off of the 2009 debut from one of the titans of modern instrumental metal and jazz-fusion.

     Animals as Leaders has a bunch of great songs on it that definitely deserve periodic revisiting, but like I said, "Inamorata" has always been one of my favourites. It's got a couple of relentless, pummeling grooves, and a couple of matching solos and lead sections that consistently rip without ever descending into the realm of wankery.

     Newer Animals as Leaders is great, but for my money you don't need to look any further than the first album for some killer jams. Fortune cookie lesson for today: don't get hung up on the past, but don't forget about it either.

Animals as Leaders - Lippincott

     The Joy of Motion, the latest disc from the instrumental guitar proggers in Animals as Leaders, is chock full of good grooves and riffs, and since the animals themselves recently saw fit to demonstrate some of said riff and grooves for a podcast from the Guitar Center in Holywood, I think it's the perfect time to put one of their tunes before you once again.

     "Lippincott" has a very Meshuggah feel to me, with lots jagged edges and angular riffs. But Animals as Leaders tend to rise above their djenty peers by throwing their own twists and turns into the standard Meshuggah formula, twists like some sweet two-handed tapping and even a little finger picking. We all know Tosin and Javier are incredible guitarists, but seeing some of these techniques, especially the finger picking, used in new and interesting ways in a genre like metal is what sets Animals as Leaders apart.

     Unless of course you think I'm out to lunch. Do you find Animals as Leaders too mainstream? If I really want to hear some new and interesting uses of this technique or that technique, should I be listening to band X, Y or Z? Leave it in a comment!

Animals as Leaders - Tempting Time

     This evening sees another quintessential band in modern instrumental metal. Yup, it's time for another Animals as Leaders song.

     "Tempting Time" is the opening track from the band's 2009 debut, and thus in a way is the listener's introduction to all things Animals as Leaders. High energy and chock full of shreddy goodness, it sets the tone for the kind of instrumetal that's to come. To derisively label Animals as djent because of their rhythmic,  percussive grooves and baritone-range guitar tunings would be to vastly underestimate what Tosin and company are up to. Don't make this mistake!

Song of the Day: Misha Mansoor and Tosin Abasi - Optimist

     Misha Mansoor and Tosin Abasi: two great tastes that taste great together.

Song of the Day: T.R.A.M. - Endeavour

     A quick instrumental jazz metal post for you this evening, and a riddle: what do The Mars Volta, Animals as Leaders, and Suicidal Tendencies have in common? Give up?

Song of the Day: Animals as Leaders - Song of Solomon

     Since tonight is Tired Tuesday, and I want to make it Sleepy-Time Tuesday as quickly as possible, we're just going to go with something tried and tested and call the whole thing Tasty Tuesday, OK?

Song of the Day: Mestis - Menta

     Today's song comes from an act that's kind of a friend-of-a-friend sort of thing. You see, there's this instrumental prog-tech-jazz metal type band you probably know called Animals as Leaders, and in this band there are two guitarists: Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes. These two slingers of many-stringer guitars are so full of ideas that they're in another band together, the jazz-influenced T.R.A.M. Even more than that, Reyes is so super chock full of material that he's got his own solo side-project called Mestis. It's from this project's first EP that I've drawn today's song.