For the first album of the big (read: other) three in the Areal stable, Metope’s Kobol delivers exactly what you need. There are straight bangers (“Superimbat,” “33”), Ada-styled mixtures of the sweetly melodic and industrial-tinged (“Nashville,” “M1D1”), and surprises (not surprises) (“I’m So Ready,” “Panicflute”). And if you’ve got the vinyl version, that only leaves two tracks unaccounted for. Rest assured, they’re just as good as the others. I just haven’t been able to neatly slot them into some sort of naming convention quite yet (a good thing). A step up from their widely lauded, lackluster recent compilation, Metope’s Kobol is sure to be overlooked, but doesn’t deserve to be.

Areal / Areal033 / Arealcd5
[Todd Burns]