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Sentient is a dark ambient, doom rock collision, with progressive sludge metal undercurrents; Troy Sanders’ (vocalist and bassist of metal band Mastodon) vocals saddened and filled with longing. This particular track, whether deliberate or no, has strong resemblance towards the works of Anathema, Katatonia, and Riverside, merely for the fearless demonstration of mixing genres rarely explored together. Gift fuses hard rock, sludge, djent and heavy metal in a more uplifting track, in reference to the lyrical content, for it speaks of exploring the unknown and new adventures.
Resurge is a funky hard rock, alternative rock, stoner rock and djent concoction, that has a surreal ‘90s feel to the production. Sanders vocal delivery portrays that of encouragement and paranoia, with a manipulative intent. Dublin abandons the previous genre directions to deliver that of an eerie post-punk, gothic-doom rock alongside an industrial/nu-metal suggestion within the guitar’s distortion that envelop the lulled, disturbing lyrics of insanity.
Ornament begins with Troy Sanders belting out in roguish tones, attended with post-rock, grunge and sludge and Metalcore guitar riffs and chugs. As the song develops, drops of early nu-metal, alternative rock find their way through, as well as neo progressive and art rock. Just as the previous track ends, it’s led immediately into Pawns, distorted guitars and drums, toying with hard rock, grunge, djent and sludge rock; with harmonious vocals, of clean and distorted quality.
Colourfade as the title of the track suggests, legitimately fades into the configuration of glitch, stutter, alternative hard rock, sludge, djent and doom metal, lyrically and vocally anguished; speaking of the loss of joy in life. Roads lead into a more electronic (EDM) intro, combining lo-fi, glitch and orchestra that pulsate at the time of a heartbeat. The vocals are softened, paranoid. Industrial, dark pop and post-punk leads in to take the previous genres’ place, and Sanders takes a more confident, if not dismayed position, telling the story of disloyalty and betrayal.
Slow Awakening transforms into a hard rock and country rock hybrid, with the guitar’s, distorted stutter found the formation of psychedelic and punk rock, as well for the drums. The track also tampers with blues, whilst in deliberately contradictory fashion, Fast Awakening the previous track’s sister track, picks up the pace. Inside this package of a song, Gone is Gone blend hard rock, punk (for the shortness of the track) and noise rock.
Resolve is a softened track, amalgamating soft rock, alternative rock, indie rock and acoustic blues; emulating (possibly even sampling) rock/new wave bands such as Tears for Fears (Pale Shelter, 1983), progressive rock musicians Steve Hackett, and nu-metal bands such as Payable on Death; for the venture of melodic, yet dark and roguish nature of the musical content, contrasting by the soft delivery of the lyrics. Echolocation the last track of the album comes back to the more energetic establishment; returning to post-rock and alternative rock, however there is once more a more ambient rock taste, which fits to the subject matter of the track, implicating to the song sounding as if it was performed beneath the water’s surface, formulating a muffled reception, as jested when Troy Sanders sings into a megaphone like device. The track then detonates into hard progressive rock, Troy Van Leeuwen’s guitar solo enigmatic and soulful.
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