All Too Human – Juggernaut 2012

Now…

Here’s another first for April, Juggernaut is my first experience with Texas metal band All Too Human. It appears that this album has been sometime in the making. We last heard from the band in 2002. The core members remain: Clint Wilson (g), Maurice Taylor (b), and Chris Lucci (d). They’ve borrowed Gordon Tittsworth from Images of Eden on vocals. (Lucci also plays drums for Images of Eden.)

With one spin I’ll admit I was skeptical. Juggernaut is a rather diverse and dark album. To the former, you’ll hear a variety of influences informing the prog, including traditional heavy metal, power metal, and modern hard rock. As to the latter, the heaviness unleashed here gives the album a weighty brooding quality. The best pieces are the bookends of the title track and the revamped instrumental Arrythmia, from 2002’s Entropy.

What lies in between is best appreciated with repeated listens to formulate an opinion. First time through, I found these songs to be interesting but adequate prog metal. However, if something would have distracted me at the time, I probably wouldn’t have thought I missed anything important. Given a second spin, and despite the foreboding weight, the music began to resonate with me, with favorable nods to Ruffian, Cut Me, Burden, and Insurgent. All these show the continued ambition and creativity, and the talent, of the band. Yet, ultimately there’s not a lot of warmth and accessibility here, and sometimes the arrangements seem rigid. Nevertheless, for heavier, darker, progressive metal with some subtle modern nuances, All Too Human’s Juggernaut is a good accomplishment.

1. Juggernaut
2. Thorn in My Side
3. Rumble
4. Ruffian
5. Cut Me
6. Never Enough
7. Burden
8. Insurgent
9. Catharsis
10. Arrythmia (2012 Remix- Bonus Track)

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