Groundbreaking, genre-defying instrumental trio ANIMALS AS LEADERS recently announced its highly anticipated new album, “Parrhesia”. The band’s first new full-length effort since 2016’s critically acclaimed “The Madness Of Many” will be released on March 25, 2022 via Sumerian Records. Pre-order bundles are available now at this location.
Today the band has revealed the album’s third single, the song titled “Gordian Naught” which comes accompanied by a visualizer that can be viewed below.
It might sound strange to associate “storytelling” with instrumental music. But ANIMALS AS LEADERS jettisoned the rules, limitations, and boundaries of conventional rock music from the start. Armed with palette-expanding eight-string guitars, rich synths, and pummeling percussive grooves, the trio is beloved by metalheads, aspiring virtuosos, jazz fanatics, and casual listeners alike. As Pitchfork observed, “ANIMALS AS LEADERS have walked the tightrope between sheer technical virtuosity and actual emotional resonance.” Even without vocals, this is intimate, myth-making music.
“The Problem Of Other Minds” arrives two months after the release of “Monomyth”, which was accompanied by a music video directed by Telavaya Reynolds and featuring choreography by Tlathui Maza of Nohbords. The music video has clocked up nearly 900,000 YouTube views, with the track clocking up over 1 million cross-platform streams.
“Parrhesia” Album Artwork
“Parrhesia” track listing:
1. Conflict Cartography
2. Monomyth
3. Red Miso
4. Gestaltzerfall
5. Asahi
6. The Problem Of Other Minds
7. Thoughts And Prayers
8. Micro-Aggressions
9. Gordian Naught
ANIMALS AS LEADERS began as a solo outlet for Abasi, whose creative partnership with classically trained guitarist Javier Reyes and Berklee-educated drummer Matt Garstka is built on a shared love of everything from fusion to technical death metal. Garstka graced the cover of Modern Drummer in 2015. In one of his many appearances on their cover, Guitar World named Tosin among the Guitarists Of The Decade. Rolling Stone featured him as part of their “Young Guns” series. The Chicago Tribune declared him “the closest thing prog-metal has to an Eddie Van Halen.” Kerrang! included their album “Weightless” among its Best Albums of 2011. “The Joy Of Motion” entered the Billboard 200 at No. 24 in 2014, and “The Madness Of Many” cracked the Top 20 in 2016. Now more than a decade into their career, a quick look at the bands they’ve toured with demonstrates the consistently diverse appeal of ANIMALS AS LEADERS. It’s a list that includes KORN, DEFTONES, THRICE, MESHUGGAH, UNDEROATH, TESSERACT and CIRCA SURVIVE, as well as major festivals with the likes of LINKIN PARK, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and SLIPKNOT.
ANIMALS AS LEADERS offer more than clinic-ready musicianship and proficiency. A focus on mood, texture, and emotive power elevates the material past any preconceived notions, resulting in a fascinatingly unique phenomenon, with an unlikely and profound appeal across multiple sub-genres and over 200 million career streams to date.
