Assignment is a German Progression metal band, recently releasing their third album, Inside Of the Machine. The album is a 15 track with a duration of over 70 minutes so there is plenty to listen to and gauge the full spectrum of the band.
Focusing on the positives first there is a good sense of chemistry between the keyboard player and the guitarist. In most songs, you feel that chemistry really provides a very full and strong sound. These can be seen in the bridge section of Resistance. The guitarist Goran Panic does a great job of providing solos for the songs without much repetition. A feat that is rarely achieved for guitar players. The dynamic changes are fairly good, though some sound a bit average for example like in Betrayal where it changes and feels awkward to listen. I Am The Machine, shows really interesting changes which should be seen across more of the tracks.
Another element that is well done is the tempo changes. These come almost at random but only speed up or slow down a fraction and are handled well by the band, therefore making the songs a lot more interesting. Overall most of the songs flow well.
There are downsides to this album though and some of them are pretty big turn-offs for listeners. Starting off with vocals; throughout the first 6 songs, there isn’t much happening in terms of good vocal delivery. They are monotone, rarely actually fit with the music, and generally ruin the experience for the listener. It is only mid-way through Betrayal when finally a good vocal line is heard. In any case, a listener should never have to go through half an album just to hear a good vocal melody and vocals that fit. Even once the vocals become acceptable, they don’t live up to anything special. The opening track, Upload the System and it is instrumental.
For any prog band, instrumentals are where the band are meant to show all their arsenal or tempo changes, time signature changes, huge dynamic shift, and complex passages on their instruments. But, Uploading the system feels more like 5 songs in one. The features no motive so there is no motive development throughout the song, so it starts to lose its flow and get boring. But the biggest letdown of the whole album is the poor discussion when it came to mixing. The guitar is barely there. Even the solos lack the strong punch that they need to break through the rest of the band. While the keyboard seems to also be there considerably a lot louder than every other instrument. The drummer is in the same boat as the guitarist, meanwhile, the bass seems to be left out of the mix altogether. It was a very poor discussion to place the majority of the band so low in the mix.
Overall this album isn’t really much fun to listen to and it gets dull with all the songs poorly mixed. The vocals, never seem to live up to even an average standard. The songwriting isn’t anything amazing and giving it 2/5 seems like it is pushing it.
Assignment: Facebook
Release Year: 2013
Label: Mausoleum Records
Category: Album
Country: Germany
Reviewed by Adam Orlowski
