Live Review 004-Animals As Leaders

Live Review 004-Animals As Leaders

Live performance:****     Times Seen:6

Animals As Leaders (2009)-9.6

Weightless (2011)-9.2

The Joy of Motion (2013)-9.6

The Madness of Many (2016)-

Genre:Instrumental Metal

Genre 2:Progressive Metal

Genre 3:[Shreddy]  djent

Genre 4:Tosin Abasicore

For fans of:Periphery, Chon, Reflux, After The Burial, Antarctic, Cloudkicker, Between The Buried & Me, Liquid Tension Expirement heavy instrumentals, guitars with almost as many strings as you have fingers (hopefully),djent, moshing to instrumental music and obviously progressive musical elements.

Status-Writing                                Label-Prosthetic, currently Sumerian.

Formed in 2007

Animals As Leaders. When I first saw them it was on the shirt of my friend Matt Taibi back in highschool, I didn’t think twice of it and just assumed they were a vegan hardcore band or something of that. I don’t remember what got me to listen to them for the first time back in 2011 but I can remember how wrong I felt and how pleasantly surprised I was. Anyone who knows music theory, or especially guitar techniques will immediately recognize the talent this band wields, and for those of you that know neither you can still tell simply by the mix of heavy and clean parts in this instrumental trio along with their sick ambiance and groove. 

To date, Animals As Leaders have released 3 albums and in my opinion there is nothing wrong with any of these releases which gives them a 9.0+ rank in my book. They are all different from each other, and yet if you heard if for the first time you would be able to tell that it’s AAL immediately which I love.

Now you probably think this band is gosh dang sick on record, but can they pull it off live? The answer for the most part is, yes. They blew my mind the first 2 times I saw them live both before and directly after Weightless came out. Ever since then I have managed to crowd surf my large body every single time I see them play the title track off of that album during the ending groove “werwerwerwerwerwahwahwahwahwahwah” and so on. So sick. However in the third and fourth time I saw them they still killed it, but I’m almost certain I heard a few slip-ups and they didn’t feel as tight as they had previously. With such technical music I would never blame them for making an error, but it is something worth noting. However, the second to last time I saw this band at Irving Plaza with After The Burial and Chon right around the time The Joy of Motion was being released they blew my god damn mind with how tight they were and how solid the finalized lineup with the new(ish) drummer Matt Garstka who played Weightless in his own original drum solo esque-way. It starts off the like the original song but then at my favorite part I mentioned earlier he changes it up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcxkDGF4QZY
The last time I saw them was also with Chon, this time at Revolution in Long Island and they amazed me once more leaving no doubts or questionable flaws this time around.
The energy these musicians have is truly remarkable. Watching Tosin’s face is a personal favorite pastime for me, because when he doesn’t have a strained guitar look, he has a gigantic smile that incites happiness into anyone looking into it, and is rumored to actually cure poverty. In 2011, Navene stage dove right on top of me, and nothing says rock star like nearly getting crushed by an amazing drummer!

A new trend that’s been growing is what I like to call “Djentmoshing” as people literally will be dancing and throwing down to guitar riffs and/or guitar tones. When seeing a band like Vildhjarta it’s especially prominent, but to watch this go on to an instrumental band is truly a curious occasion and fun to watch play out. Especially because the single  djentmosher usually become absorbed into a large pushing pit. From crowd participation with djentmoshing, pushpitting, crowd surfing or just standing their watching and genuinely pooping yourself; if you haven’t seen this band yet you’re going to want to change that ASAP.

Recommended intro songs:
1.CAFO
2.Weightless
3.Do Not Go Gently
4.Physical Education