Genre Theory

Judging from the extremely dense, seemingly arbitrary and slightly pretentious narrative spun on the band’s bio, including the overwrought descriptors they’ve attached to themselves individually as players (bassist Shawn Briardy, for instance, is responsible for “thickening undertones” and “low end theorems”), the men of Genre Theory have clearly put a lot of thought into what they’re doing. Not surprisingly, the prog-inspired passages contained on Ubiquity are every bit as considered, with four songs that stretch out to at least five minutes each. The meticulous arrangements, fluid guitar work, exacting rhythms and expansive vocals have as much in common with torch-bearers such as Circa Survive as they do with proggier predecessors like Fates Warning. Ubiquity was mixed and mastered by Jason Livermore of the Blasting Room, with some additional engineering from Andrew Berlin. The resulting recordings are as crisp as you might imagine. A solid effort overall.