Evan Brewer took the metal world by storm with his 2011 album, Alone. Alone was an album that showcased Brewer's abilities as a bassist and a composer for the instrument all by itself. Not that his talents were a secret until then, given his prior recordings with Animosity and Reflux, and even more recently The Faceless. Now with his newest release, Your Itinerary, Brewer expands his horizons to an entire band's worth of sounds to very good results. In short, think of the album as a more concise Animals as Leaders with a whole lot more jazz.
Focused is a good word to describe Your Itinerary. Sure, Brewer could go nuts throughout the entire record and fill it with shred, but he doesn't. In fact, the majority of what you'll be hearing on the record is keyboards and fantastic drum work with an emphasis on the bass, rather than Brewer shining the spotlight on himself the entire time.
Overall the songs take a very jazzy approach, but in that Animals as Leaders way where it's only jazzy in theory and not so much overall sound. Though there are plenty of super jazz-laden moments on the record, like the end of "Full Circle" or the strange tempo-changed breakdown thing on "Microscopic Scale." Those moments are welcome, if only to break up what you're hearing into more digestible bites that make the record work as a whole piece… because who wants to sit through the exact same thing for an entire record?
Brewer's compositional skills shine bright on this record, far exceeding that of Alone. Alone could only accomplish so much with bass(es), and while it did so with flying colors, Your Itinerary allows Brewer to really dig deep into his ideas and flesh out some really interesting material. Just the opening track for example, "The Adjacent Possible," takes a strange approach to guitar-less music, allowing two basses or more to hold down all that a guitar would while keyboard patches make quick work of a melody. There's a certain magic about a few basses in place of a guitar too: the tonal qualities in conjunction with the keyboards just…. works.
Everything about this album just works. It's intelligently written jazz metal that doesn't try to be more than it is.
8/10
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHddnJREUwI[/youtube]
