Some reviews write themselves. Some albums you sit and listen to and all it takes is once through and not only do you get the point, but you can write about it easily and feel you have developed as intricate an understanding as you’ll ever need of the material. New Jersey progressive instrumentalists East of the Wall (whose lineage traces back to the woefully unheralded The Postman Syndrome) are not one of those bands and their Forgotten Empire debut, Farmer’s Almanac, is not one of those albums.

It’s been days now that I’ve sat and sat with this record — and I’ve reviewed it before! East of the Wall have a sound that’s not the most unique in the world, it’s not like they’re reinventing heaviness or anything like that, but the four-piece offer music that has all the prowess of tech/jazz metal with the kind of presentation that it’s easy to step back from and just let wash over you. You can dig as far as you want into Farmer’s Almanac and it’s like a coal mine to the center of the earth, but you can also stand at the doorway and just look into it too. And it works equally well both ways.

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