In a recent issue of Decibel Magazine, some writer who thought it’d be clever to base his writing alias on the name of our own esteemed Satan Rosenbloom summed up East of the Wall’s highly excellent 2010 release Ressentiment thusly: “Put simply, East of the Wall have written a minor prog-metal masterpiece without being assholes about it.” The same could be said for Intronaut’s Valley of Smoke; we cannot reiterate enough how good this album is.

Alright, maybe Intronaut are being assholes just a little bit… all three members are leaps and bounds better than you at their respective instruments — and at putting together prog metal masterpieces — and they want you to know it, but for the most part they don’t do so without losing track of what matters most, the song. Valley of Smoke is just challenging enough; four or five listens in and I still haven’t completely wrapped my head around this album, but like your morning brain state after each successive cup of coffee things are slowly coming into focus. And what’s in focus is absolutely phenomenal. That’s just the way music should be; challenging. You’re not always supposed to “get it” the first time through; what’s the point? If that’s what you want you may as well just crank Linkin Park to 11, dudebro. Each time I listen to Valley of Smoke things come just a little bit more into focus, facilitated by Josh Newell’s positively crushing, lush, and strikingly clear production. And it’s all worth it, because holy smokes is there a lot of great shit to listen to on this album.

Or, to put it more succinctly: “A++++ would do business with again great seller fast shipping! highly recommend”

Stream Valley of Smoke in its entirety below. Pre-order it here before it comes out tomorrow, along with some killer t-shirt designs.

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