Tenfold's continual evolution over the years has seen them amalgamate their once prevalent influences into what is now a sound that is nearly all their own. Perhaps comparable to a band like Chevelle with a faint Deftones influence, "Ad Astra" finds this Sacramento, CA based quartet delving deep into the realm of melodic modern metal and accentuating it with firm conviction and the occasional prog rock styled flourish.

Vocally, band frontman Justin Butler elevates his restrained harmonies and emotive mid range tones to new heights through sharply focused verses and sweeping choruses that remain fiercely on point. The guitar work is a bit edgier as a result, adding a wealth of driving, distorted riffs that play heavily on an interesting sense of timing which helps to set the band apart from the pack. A few progressive scales and breakdowns are also thrown into the mix, making the EP a surprisingly colorful affair, while also providing a breather from the persistent riff driven momentum. As such, the bass lines take heed of the guitars lead and roll out their own forceful array of dense slides and tumbling plucks to create a solid, yet forgiving playing performance that greatly compliments the groups more low key stylings. The percussion on the other hand is a bit sharper and manages to establish a clever contrast with the low end, slicing out pointed beats that thrive on off timed placement and creative variations, all the while delivering that ever necessary percussive punch.

From song to song, "Ad Astra" is easily Tenfold's most accomplished work to date and its impressive to see them have developed this far, smoothing their sound out from a once disjointed display of emotional heaviness into a confidently rounded package. The cognition of all the instruments is perhaps one of the bands most praiseworthy achievements thus far, as each member contributes his own substantially differing part and yet they all connect together seamlessly to form a strong multi-pronged push. In fact, the only thing that really holds the band back now is their lack of pronounced dynamic. The songs are well crafted and helplessly lure the listener in, but they also tend to lumber forward at a continual pace that could greatly benefit from more extreme highs and lows. All in all, Tenfold are a band who are rapidly approaching their prime, and when judging by the strength of this record, it's doesn't look like it's going to be too long before they hit their stride and break out of their native scene with a major label record contract in hand.