Album Review: Animals As Leaders-Weightless

Over the past two years, Animals As Leaders has earned quite a name for themselves. Guitarist Tosin Abasi has become a world-renowned guitar player earning high praise from legends like Steve Vai. With this success, they have toured with everyone from Circa Survive to Between The Buried and Me to Decapitated and easily become the popular active instrumental band. They have just released their second album (and first since blowing up), Weightless, which only solidifies their reign on the instrumental music world.

Weightless is not only better than their debut, it blows the doors off of it. The biggest improvement on Weightless is the songwriting. The songs flow much better and you can tell there was more attention to detail on this album. It's not just about Tosin's solos on this album (although those are just as mind-blowing as ever), there's an enhanced focus on melody and riffs. Album standouts "Cylindrical Sea, "An Infinite Regression" and "Weightless" are the biggest examples of blending the two seamlessly. You have got all these insane solos blended with some truly gorgeous and immense melodies. Another big improvement is the fact that there is an actual band backing up Tosin this time. The first album was just a drum machine behind his guitar playing and it had kind of an artificial feel behind it. This album benefits so much from the presence of an actual second guitar player and a drummer it's not even funny. It makes the whole album sound better and not feel like Tosin is playing with a bunch of robots. Yet another improvement is the production. Drummer Naven Koperweis and guitarist Javier Reyes do an awesome job with the production. The production is a lot more clear and balanced than the first album, which had kind of a fuzzy tone to it.

Weightless is essentially Animals As Leaders 2.0. It takes everything that was great about the first record and substantially improves it. Tosin's guitarwork is awe-inspiring as usual and the presence of a full band on this album pays dividends. Animals As Leaders is my favorite instrumental band and Weightless raises my enjoyment of their music even higher.

4/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Cylindrical Sea
2.An Infinite Regression
3.Weightless