Such as it is, I was prepared to write a somewhat scathing review, partly based on their categorization of "experimental." The best I can guess for what they're considering experimental are the electronic flourishes added to the base Victory artist recipe. This ranges from a drum machine kick/clap on "Your Time To Shine" to the dancey electro riff at the beginning of "The Heist" to the bizarre electro ambient intermission "Cadence and Cascade." That last track is probably most deserving of the descriptor "experimental" on this CD.

As I listened to the disc again before writing this, another thing jumped out at me--a moderate progressive (gasp) tendency in the song structures. Not so much in the way of multi-part epics, but with a somewhat drifting nature to how riffs and backdrops change; for instance, the first and second verses of "Your Time To Shine," with a heavy bass riff for the first one and a more stuttering, bass-and-piano backing for the second. Beyond that, there are some clean ambient passages that show some post-rock influences.

I guess they decided "experimental" was less likely to scare people away than "progressive."

Of course, holding all that together is, in fact, a solid foundation of the sort of stuff you'd expect from a lot of Victory artists. A few heavier chugs or short breakdowns, but primarily pop-punk chording and melodic motifs, standard emo subject matter, and that nasal vocal style. The first time I listened to the CD, what jumped out at me the most was a similarity to Story of the Year, in that every time the song switched, my brain was expecting it to be "Until the Day I Die." Other similarities are the opening riff of "Reasons We Sleep," owing some to (most recently) Avenged Sevenfold's "Beast And The Harlot," or the chorus on "We Are Your Own," which reminds me of if you collided pop-punk with 80s new wave.