Diagonal - The Second Mechanism (2012)

Absolutely fucking phenomenal! This time around Diagonal delves even further into the progressive realm that they had unearthed on their 2008 self titled debut. The overall sound here is very organic without being overtly so. Each rhythmic corridor whilst wonderfully anfractuous, never loses sight of itself or its intent.

The album is devoid of a goodly sum of the vocals that made their appearance on the first album, which is fine by me. I'm actually glad that the band opted to venture down this path as I am more interested in what is going on musically and where each instrument is going to take me. I'm tempted to believe that having a great deal of vocals liberally peppered throughout would only hinder the band in the long run. Having said that, I did like the dustiness of the vocals on the first album and felt that the band did a stellar job, on all fronts,  transporting the listener 30 or 40 years back in time. This is a feat Diagonal has managed to pull off yet again with The Second Mechanism.

The great thing about many of these sort of modern progressive/neo-classic rock bands is that they have a whole history of great music to work from and that includes the ability to avoid stepping into certain piles of shit that many of their great predecessors had previously not seen before and all around them. Many of these bands, such as Elephant9, Fire! and of course Diagonal, are not fucking around and have instead gotten right down to the business of painting aural landscapes for the mind to explore sans the overindulgent tendencies of their musical forefathers. Diagonal have once again outdone themselves and my only fear is that we will have to wait another 4 years until their next phase of brilliance has revealed itself.