Long Island’s STRAY FROM THE PATH made a dent in the world of metalcore with their previous full-length Our Oceania. That sometimes remarkable, sometimes unfocused assemblage of songs set down two trains of thought: these guys have the talent to run with DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN; but only if they stopped trying to so hard to show off their technical chops and expansive songwriting vision. Villains seems to take that criticism to heart, as the band’s drops an atomic bomb of devastation on this release, and does so through 11 songs in a brisk 23 minutes. Stripped of fat, and de-bloated, STRAY FROM THE PATH kill it on this release and bring to mind some of the early classics from Ferret Records (DISEMBODIED, BLOOD HAS BEEN SHED, FOR THE LOVE OF, and even TORN APART). Endemic of the ‘PATH’s progression is the fifth track, an instrumental song titled “Superstructure,” with seamlessly bridges the grooved-up ferocity of border songs “The White Flag,” and “Soviet.” Villains impresses on the lyrical front as well with songs that feature a healthy layer of social cynicism, and to top it all off, the album was recorded and mixed by Kurt Ballou. It may seem like I’m gushing here, but after a decade or so of bands mistaking the tech-metal genre for a license to assemble unfettered noise and listener-unfriendly discombobulation, it’s brilliantly refreshing to hear an act pulls off this high wire act with no pretentious bullshit dragging from the rear.

Sumerian

www.myspace.com/strayfromthepath