Having been around for a number of years Gryp have established themselves as a mainstay of their local Fresno, CA scene and with their aggressive new metal based sound its not hard to see why. Bringing to mind the likes of the Deftones, Blindside, Crossbreed and more, the group graft vertigo including vocal melodies with angst ridden modern metal rage, a combination which although by no means breaks new ground, sounds oddly refreshing at a time where most bands have since abandoned such stylings in favor of the emo and metalcore motions.

Possessing a weathered feel, the vocals are spoken with purpose and conviction, meshing melodies with whisper to scream buildups and venomous wails. Through it all band frontman Curtis Shamlin delivers a versatile performance that is neurotic and chaotic yet always emotionally driven. The guitar work grates along the surface with scratchy aggro riffs that thrash about like a provoked caged tiger while a heavy dosage of effects serve as auditory hallucinogenics, providing atmospheric flourishes and color. Gravitating bass lines with a slight detuning assert themselves and lay down a certain groove to the music which is in turn bolstered by a stiff yet agile percussive performance and the occasional inclusion of what sounds to be some programming/sampling.

Led off by some exceptionally strong songs this album starts off quite promising, almost making one forget the bad wave of dime a dozen bands that had a sound similar to this in the late 90's; But unfortunately such momentum is eventually curbed as the effort drifts off into poorly structured and at times questionable material that comes off as being cliche and laughable rather than conveying some deep disturbing emotion. There are times when they do manage to get a handle on it and put forth some cathartically aggressive songs but all in all the album seems to suffer from a lack of cognition with a lot of the latter songs feeling like filler in comparison to the first few tracks. Such qualities make the album a lopsided listen of sorts and while a number of interesting ideas are put forth its hard to look past the fact that the band are playing a style of music that has been thoroughly traversed and as such they pretty much have to deliver an amazing track time in and time out to keep the attention of an audience who have pretty much heard it all before. Failure at achieving this task is perhaps the key downfall to this record and while the band do unleash a few solid salvos there's really not much here you'll want to hold on to for very long.