The Ascetic Paradox (Full Length 2015)

TAP as it is referred to by the band’s advocates came at a pivotal time in the band’s journey where the quintet was still a dominant live force, and still strongly creative but had begun to disintegrate internally as a unit. The album was a compact tour de force in furthering the band’s complex songwriting structures and incorporating provocative storytelling with a much darker and heavier stylistic approach. Fan favourites like the exotic thrash/speed metal prog banger ‘An Idle Mind is the Devil’s Workshop’ (the music video created by Randy Chriz won the Asia Digital Video Music Award in 2018), the jazz fusion inspired ‘Our Beautiful Decay’, the haunting ‘Let the Wolves Come and Lick Your Wounds’, and the face-melting ‘And Now We Shall Bring Them War!’ showcased the band at the peak of their creative powers despite internal disputes that became prevalent.