“The Apologist” is the follow-up to last year’s “Ressentiment” and it sees East Of The Wall steering towards a slightly more streamlined and melodic approach, putting a greater focus on more memorable song structures.
The group still posses the meticulous craftsman and inventive intricacies that were present in previous works, but the insertion of more melody in detriment of a dissonant harshness, as well as the choice to render the songs with more memorable passages, makes “The Apologist” a little bit different. Whereas in previous works, the smooth and intricate passages would abruptly unfurl into all-out rage, it seems that this time East Of The Wall are a bit more patient when letting their rage unfold. As a result, “The Apologist” flows with an increased and marvellous fluidity from start to finish, with songs such as “Linear Failure”, the title track and “Whiskey Sipper” reflecting the band’s remarkable ability to smoothly transition between moodier, gentle progressive rock passages to raging metal/hardcore segments.
One thing hasn’t changed though, East Of The Wall’s music is still rather difficult to categorize, but regardless of what it sounds like and where it falls in the realm of heavy music, “The Apologist” is a great, well crafted record and is worthy of the attention of anyone into great, challenging and inventive music. (7.6/10)
Luca Niero
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