Like some kind of Lovecraftian construct, maddening in its ever-shifting, non-Euclidean nature,
I Set My Friends on Fire
are a tough band to paint a picture of. With a sound that's constantly shifting in any and all directions, their second album,
Astral Rejection
, pushes and pulls listeners in almost every direction at the same time, switching from glitchy electronic to math metal to Auto-Tuned pop not only within the same song, but sometimes within the same minute. What really sets them apart from the ultra-ironic metal-turned-crunk of
Brokencyde
or the mind-bending electro-metal experiments of
Genghis Tron
, however, is that there is seldom an attempt to merge all of these things, instead allowing everything to exist in its own world with minimal bleed, giving the impression of a radio that's pulling in just a hint of another station. In a lot of ways,
feels like a series of tests designed by
to test the listeners' endurance by shocking their sensibilities at every turn, and if you can push through the Auto-Tune, you might be surprised by what you find. ~ Gregory Heaney