Canadian progressive metal outfit The Kindred, formerly known as Today I Caught The Plague, has been making a name for itself through mostly word-of-mouth while touring with prominent progressive metal acts such as Protest the Hero and Between The Buried And Me. Now on the Sumerian Records roster, The Kindred is ready to take the progressive metal scene by storm with debut album “Life in Lucidity.” Unfortunately it's less of a hurricane and more of a passing thunder storm.

“Life in Lucidity” breathes new life into a metal sub-genre that has become saturated over the years with bands attempting to break out with absurd technicality or “brutal grooves.” The album's odd blend of toned-down progressive metal and southern rock that’s borderline Western-sounding is quite refreshing and attention grabbing, as prominently showcased in the song “Decades.” That toned-down progressive metal tone switches out being overly technical for intricately plotted sounds that are given just the right amount of space to be played out. Vocalist Dave Journeaux’s very airy and southern accented clean singing brings an eyebrow-raising new approach to progressive metal music while being just a notch under incomprehensible.

Ultimately, as unique sounding “Life in Lucidity” is, the album’s tone is all over the place. This southern progressive rock is just as eccentric sounding as it is intriguing. Though catchy, some songs like “Everbound” contain incomprehensibly sung parts, random gang vocal choruses, metalcore-style breakdowns, unnecessarily long run-times, and awkwardly placed keyboard sections, which are just some of the bullet points of this record being a prime example of “having their cake and eating it too.”

The Kindred’s singular issue is attempting to do everything at once. The songs try to go in every direction almost aimlessly with no direction or goal in mind. “Life in Lucidity” is a refreshing progressive metal album that offers something for any extreme music enthusiast, but in the end some will be turned off by its identity crisis.