Isolated – The Art of Deception (reviewed by The Night Writer)

They say that less is more. They might be right. But sometimes more is more, too. It’s self-evident and easier to prove. Just listen to the new one from The Art of Deception, the Pennsylvanian four-piece; they practically revel in the idea that if you have a blank sonic canvas to play with, why not cram in as much as possible?

Isolated is a weighty and muscular beast built on twin kick drum ricochettes, thunderous fills, bruised and brooding bass lines and salvos of abrasive and cavernous guitars. On top of that, they layer vocals that dance demonically across this blighted soundscape.

But, they are not without finesse to match the technicality of their playing, as is proven as the song heads towards the finish line and seems to explode in slow motion like an annotated musical diagram as if feeling the need to slow their component musical parts, show the listener what’s going on under the hood, and allowing things to ebb and flow between more calm (relatively speaking) and calculated deliveries and the intense noise spikes of earlier.

If you like your music hard and heavy, this is for you. If creative yet cavernous guitar sounds are your thing, this ticks that box, too. Need more driving backbeats and bombastic bass lines in tour life? This has that in spades. Technical playing meets poise and purpose? Yes sir. In fact, if rock and metal are your things, especially if you like those sounds pushed to their extremes, The Art of Deception, in general, and Isolated, in particular, is where you need to be headed. You’ll thank me later.