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Dan Swano is a name familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in Progressive Death Metal. His early days in Edge of Sanity helped push the envelope on what Death Metal could do, and throughout his...fucking Christ, 37-year career that started when he was 10 (which predates Edge of Sanity), he's had a hand in roughly 30 projects, all of them ranging from Prog Rock to Death Metal. I'm admittedly only familiar with Edge of Sanity, so I have no idea how this two-piece band compares to all the other projects. What I do know is that, unfortunately, this isn't all that great.

The Inheritance is a concept album of Progressive Metal with touches of Death Metal that fails to effectively convey its narrative through the music, or elicit that much interest overall. Sure, the performances are tight, Swano's rough yet tuneful clean singing and his growling are fine, and some of the melodic work is really excellent, but the songs always end up losing focus, making them largely unmemorable and mildly irritating. There's plenty of variety and talent on display, but it only occasionally holds together long enough to truly engage. Not bad, but more an album made of good parts rather than good songs.