Assemblage 23 - Compass

Tom Shear has always kept high quality of all his releases and 'Compass' is no exception, still, there are a few small subtle changes though that is hard to nail down. You can easily hear that this is an Assemblage album, but somewhat influenced by something, most recognizable in the two last songs, "Angels & Demons" and "The Cruelest Year".

There's also a bit more filters on the vocals that I'm not to keen on, but they don't really disturb me that much. Nevertheless I think that Tom has a great voice and sometimes it seems like the filters are trying to hide flaws that are not there.

How are the rest of the eight tracks then? They are great like expected; there's no "Failure" or "Defiance", but still a high quality album with a lot of great songs. My absolute favourite is the poppy tune "Alive" that really is immersive enough to make you sing along, sometimes out loud in the bus... without you being aware of it... I've noticed that the hard way.

"Alive" is not the only great tune though and the rest of them are what you expect, great electro tracks like "Smoke", "Impermanence", "Spark" and so on. Fans of Assemblage 23 will surely not be disappointed. Nov 13 2009