II

I bought this one because I sampled a track on bandcamp and the artwork looked really cool. Anyways, it's Vale of Pnath's first album in six or so years. I'm not too super familiar with The Prodigal Empire but from what I understand they moved away from breakneck thrash/death metal and more toward "traditional" modern technical death metal with the new one. You will hear all the hall marks of a TDM release. Pristine, loud production, lots of incredibly accurate guitar parts, top-flight soloing, drummer playing like he's got eight limbs, etc. However, given all of the other strong releases we've seen in the calendar year 2016, I don't know that this one sticks out particularly well from the pack.I do enjoy this release a lot, however...the songs are vibrant, they paint pictures with their music and even go neo-classical here and there for some serious melody, double plus they love Starship Troopers ("Klendathu"). I am really enjoying the songs when they pop up on my "recently added" cloud drive list.Overall, a safe bet for fans of TDM. You likely won't think it's a landmark but it is very impressive for a group with a six-year layover. I'd bet they go even further down this route with a clever concept for their next effort.

Fast, melodic, technical, and gorgeous. I had burned out on this genre 4 years ago, but Vale of Pnath has made me love it again. I can't recommend both of their albums enough.

A worthwhile follow-up to their debut. II has very clean production, adventures themes, lightning fast tempos, and both melodic and dissonant hooks that mesh perfectly together.