Progressive rock is a tricky girl to figure out, especially if the perceiver doesn't have its priorities in order. This is the problem in the case of "A Year with No Summer," as Obsidian Kingdom fails to capitalize on the open-endedness that should be available to them. This is a very subdued and mellow record; there are heavier moments, but the album mostly coasts on chilled tempos and a constant bass presence thumping underneath the passive guitar sequences. Despite having an instrumental system that applies keyboards and semi-experimental ideas, Obsidian Kingdom appears in a familiar skin on every track, showing holes in a songwriting equation that is pigeonholed into a mopey, reflexive space. It sounds like a record some sad dudes would write if there really were a year with no summer.

The songwriting, as I mentioned, is crippled by a lack of imagination. "Darkness," for example, is extremely repetitive, repeating its hypnotic vocal lines over and over and over without any real justification to keep running up the clock. The saving grace of the album is "Away/Absent," and finally Obsidian Kingdom begins to whip out the big guns. It is a much more intense track compared to the other numbers, and features a grander experimental scheme, including a section of blast beats over its spacey stomp and trippy keyboards. Progressive rock implementing death metal influence-that's a stellar creative prospect. "Away/Absent" is the only instance of this strange, enticing union occurring, unfortunately, and it does not surprise me one iota that it is clearly the best track here.