I have held Believer in very high regard for many years.  You just didn’t hear a lot of albums as well composed, and forward thinking as Sanity Obscure, and Dimensions were in the early 90’s.  2009’s Gabriel was a pretty solid album, a little more predictable than one might expect from Believer, but an enjoyable comeback after a long layoff.  These guys have never really made the same album twice, so it didn’t come as a shock that they took things in an entirely different direction with Transhuman.  After giving this album multiple listens though, I was left wishing that Believer had chosen different path.

On Transhuman, Believer pay only the faintest lip service to their thrash roots; presenting us with very modern, and progressive sounding album.   I would have thought that Believer could make a pretty interesting album in this vein, and maybe someday they will, but Transhuman isn’t it.  None of the songs really stand out, with only the occasional interesting riff popping out to grab the listener.  This isn’t such an issue when you have the album on in the background, but when I sat down to give it my undivided attention, it became quite tedious.  The mixture of lush, spacey prog, casually heavy half-thrash, and overly processed clean vocals wears thin at about the half way point, and Transhuman never really picks up any momentum.  There isn’t really any point in me highlighting individual songs here, as they are all cut from the same cloth, and consistently mediocre.  The most interesting thing about the album was the way that parts of it reminded me of the progressive post-hardcore that bands like Snapcase, and Quicksand were playing in the 90‘s.  Something in the vocal delivery, and song structures really nails that vibe in places.  This isn’t entirely a bad thing, but it also probably isn’t what most Believer fans were hoping for.        

I am not going to beat this into the ground.  Transhuman was a pretty big disappointment for me, but I don’t think that it is entirely bad.  I really don’t like what they did with the vocals, but outside of that the album is more boring than offensive.  This is admittedly not a style that I often seek out, and maybe something is lost on me.  I am sure that there are people who will enjoy Transhuman, I guess that I am just not one of them.  Regardless, I have been a Believer fan for nearly 20 years now, and my opinion has to count for something.  I only hope that they stay true to form and take things in a different direction on the next album.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Lie Awake
2.  G.U.T
3.  Multiverse
4.  End of Infinity
5.  Transfection
6.  Clean Room
7.  Currents
8.  Traveler
9.  Ego Machine
10.  Being No One
11.  Entanglement
12.  Mindsteps

Total playing time:  53:59

Release Date: April 11th, 2011
Label: Metal Blade Records

Believer - Transhuman

Reviewer: Garett

August 4, 2011