Ideology are a progressive metal band hailing from Minnesota who have just released their debut self-titled album this August and from the sound of it we will be hearing a lot more of them to come!
The album itself is actually formed of five primary tracks of five to nine minutes in length held together with short ‘interlude’ pieces which work well to break them up, you will need these pauses to aid in the digestion of the amount of ideas presented to you within each piece so do use them wisely.
Kicking off with the longest track ‘Oxygen’ which was also the first independent release before the album we are given a brief 90’s video game soundtrack intro before the guitars and drums kick in with a familiar ‘djent’ sound, at this point you could be fooled into thinking you will be listening to another off the peg genre follower but you will be happily wrong. Although this track does start out sounding like Periphery and Good Tiger would be jealous it is not long before the song makes a massive turnabout and presents a beautiful jazz enfused guitar solo played by guest Hedras Ramos. Despite its nine minute length the listener is never left feeling that the tune is dragged out, there are endless twists and turns and styles showcased to keep interest levels high.

After an interlude comes the amazing ‘Inhale’ and its evil-twin ‘exhale’, a pair of songs that feels as if originally they were one, the former starts with a great harsh/clean question and answer vocal before again launching into an ever changing assault of musical ideas reminding me most of bands such as Aeon Zen and Native Construct in its delivery. ‘Exhale’ on the other hand starts in more of a doom laden approach before building up into a mixture of thrash and slower sections with many jazz styled riffs and solos along the way.
‘Bliss’ starts more straight-forward then the previous offerings although it sits well within the album giving the listener some great melodic touches both rhythmically and vocally before a mid-section reminiscent of Between the Buried and Me or Protest the Hero takes us yet again off on another tangent, a trick which Ideology seem to find effortless!
Closing the album is the track ‘Eyes Up!’ which again will please fans of Protest the Hero and Native Construct in its form. A writhing beast of a tune which the listener will return to again and again and find something new in every listen, this is what music is about!
In Much the same way as Native Constructs debut ‘Quiet World’ came out of nowhere last year and took the Prog Metal fans by storm I have high hopes for this albums reception . It is not an ‘easy listen’ but its certainly a hugely rewarding one and fans of Between The Buried and Me, Protest The Hero, Native Construct and Periphery are well used to this type of challenge and will be following closely the rise of this band within their favoured fringe metal scene!

Makes sure you get your copy!

You can download or stream via:
iTunes: http://apple.co/2bNlcUU
Apple Music: http://apple.co/2bERfYS
Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/2bBBjck
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2bghXap
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2bNpv2T
Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2bgsMq1