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Make no mistake about it, I'm a prog nut through and through. So whenever something labeled as progressive metal hits my inbox, I get a little excited. Refraction are a Dublin-based band, but it turns out their brand of prog is of the instrumental, "post-metal" kind. Now I'm no stranger to instrumental metal but for it to work you really need to have something there to compensate for the lack of vocals – take a look at bands such as Blotted Science, or Animals as Leaders for good examples of this little niche. Unfortunately Refraction must have missed that memo, as they just plod along for nigh on 45 minutes.

There is nothing really of note here. The musicianship, while good, is highly uninspiring and they have a tendency to jam out on post-rock chords for the majority of the tracks. To be honest, I can barely tolerate post-rock influence in my black metal, let alone in prog metal. The only way you can get around that is by adding from a wide array of genres. But no, Refraction just plod on, it really says something when the most positive thing I can say about an album is that it makes good background music.

So, all in all this will appeal to; hipsters, and insomniacs. I can't see Refraction making any sort of a splash in the metal scene, the best they can aspire to be is playing in front of a couple of stoned students. Move along folks, nothing to see here.