You're spot on with the soul aspect of the prog metal scene and how AAS brings it. They're so special because of how much groove and hook they mix in to this insanely complicated shit.
@@NormalGuyReacts Also watch his other projects (GEM with Henrik Linder from Dirty Loops and pianist Eldar Djangirov and his project with Josh De La Victoria). Along with watching Matt's drum playthroughs, watch more live AAL footage. There are songs where the two guitars vamp on a part and Matt solos.....and every solo is different....he rarely plays the same thing twice.
would love to see you check out a drum play through of monomyth or red miso. His kit has gotten a bit more complicated. As well as his playing, but not at the expense of thoughtful composition. Matt Garstka is the drummer's name.
Matt Gartska is amazing as you say in this performance, and that's back when he was basically a kid. In recent years the dude's evolved into some sort of percussion guru, creating mind-blowing parts.
Just came back to this reaction and a couple things I noticed that I didn't catch before: 1) New section to new section to new section and just goes from one thing to the next (Polyphia) - LOL....that's exactly how I feel. I feel like Polyphia plays complicated parts just to play a complicated part where AAL is a little more melodic with better song structure. 2) There are a few songs where both guitarists vamp on a part where the drummer just goes off live. "Wave of Babies", "Physical Education", "Inner Assasins" and "Ectogenesis" are the immediate ones that come to mind. And he's always experimenting so every solo is different. You can watch him play a song 10 different times and get 10 different solos. Check out a vid titled "Matt Garstka Beast Medley 2018". That's clips from a drum cam of some of those songs.
Saw them live in Gävle, Sweden back in 2019 togheter with TesseracT, Jinjer and Freak Kitchen! Awesome show, I'm totally in to Progressive Heavy Metal since 2000.
I sometimes have to just laugh at some of Matt's fills because they seem inhuman. Definitely watch more of their live stuff to see his craziness! He also posts a lot of stuff on his own channel. Different concepts he's working on, play alongs to loops trying different things. This performance was from a few years ago and he definitely had more "piss and vinegar" in him. He's a little more reserved and refined now and I feel his playing has a little more finesse on the last album compared to before.
@@NormalGuyReacts He also has breakdowns of a couple of the songs from the last album talking about how they came up with the song and how he came up with the parts. Real interesting dude to listen to.
