Metal Underground.com

The title of the album could just as easily be "Five Years Waited-For," given that this is the follow-up to the band's debut album, which was put out in 2005. This Carlsbad, New Mexico-based five-some brings a hunk of industrial metal to the table yet again. This time, it's laden with traces of progressive leanings. Most notably, the band steers clear of typical straight-ahead time signatures.

The most obvious detail about this album is the mix, which works both for and against the band. It's high-end and crisp, almost as if you had boosted your car's treble knob too much. This can either be perfectly fine or grating, depending on how you like to listen to your music. The production is such to where you can hear every instrument clearly, but you might not be able to tell what each is doing all the time. If producer Tue Madsen was going for a sledgehammer to the skull type of wall-of-sound, he's succeeded, but this could very easily fatigue the ears.

Songs like "Broken Hero," "Introspective," and "Event Horizon" show the band's consistency and dedication to technical guitar and drum work without losing catchy elements, which help to define the band's sound. Fans of Mnemic, Cannibal Corpse, and Soilwork will no doubt appreciate the combination of styles at work, involving three vocalists. The singing, for the most part, consists of hardcore type screams interspersed with clean singing, usually in choruses or pre-choruses. The band stays away from traditional riffs and time signatures, which means you'll have to pay attention, but who doesn't appreciate a challenging listen? "Reinvention" rewards discerning listeners in the later part of the album as a real rocker of a jagged melodic song.

Songs like "Burning the Doubt," "Slaughtered With Lies," and "Mortal Instinct" are straight-up fast-paced action songs bleeding death metal influence in their rhythms. The drum work is especially on point, and when the band links up for straight-ahead assaults, the drums sound exceptionally huge. Fans of Impending Doom and Oceano will easily be able to approach this. "Three Years Eclipsed" is a substantive release that both answers the prayers of fans of the first album and opens up possibilities for a new niche sound somewhere between hardcore, industrial, and death metal.