What has been created here is a massively impressive debut record that skirts all kinds of genres better than an AA member avoiding booze at an open bar event. Sludge? Check. Doom? Yep. Hardcore? Uh-huh. Math Metal? You bet. Instrumental? Affirmative. Let me qualify that last point. At times the almost quiet, moody interludes sound like they could be songs unto themselves. Textures are all over this bloody record and the listener would do well to spend lots of time [& withering] with this album.

MotA is kinda like the mighty Mastodon, really, only with longer songs. Overall the crushing and menacing vibe of Neurosis is present in spades, right down to the harsh, shouted vocals. Coupled with that, however, are expansive instrumental passages similar to those of Isis, Pelican, Explosions in the Sky, Maserati, Mogwai, and Ocelot. An occasional jazz-inflected, math riff style presents itself not unlike Dysrhythmia's finer moments, though MotA seems to be less calculating and perhaps more organic.

Bottom line: the music flows back and forth like a blood-soaked tide waiting to drag you against jagged rocks. If the rocks don't kill you, surely piranha below the surface wait to do so. "Time & Withering" displays a certain calmness that is belied by an underlying sense of chaos. Three songs clock in at over 10 minutes each while one is a hair under 5. What are technically 4 songs sound like many more and this album spans a lifetime in its sub-40 minutes. In one hyphenated word? Genre-defying. In one: hypnotic.

written by Tony Belcher

Playing time: 39.18