Deathred - Factor Inside Destiny 640

With a limited scope of instruments- just guitar and drums with the ocassional feature of electronics- it is going to take a lot to hook in new fans. Martin does display an excellent musicianship on tracks like "The Highest Sense" which not only features what feels like the longest solo ever, but also clever pauses for drum moments alone. On the downside, if most listeners flip between the tracks in between, they may begin to notice that ALL the tracks start to sound the same. Wheter or not Martin meant for the entire midsection of the album to be one giant epic guitar piece as opposed to three separate tracks is questionable, but after a while fans may begin to burn out on the entire concept. The opening and closing tracks elminiate the guitar and drums altogether and instead opt for a sci-fi ambiance that feels like a complete shift in a different direction altogether, and as a result, offer a nice cushion from the rest of the tracks. Perhaps if Martin had weaved these moments into his album altogether, the result would not have been only more progressive, but also more varied. At this point, 'Factor Inside' presents a very humane composition that eliminates all the bells and whistles of studio orchestrated music, but wears itself out on the same cliche riffs a lot faster than it should.