Hailing from the ashes of progressive metallers Mayadome comes Swedish band Loch Vostok.  Mayodome may have died but the bands spirit lives on with former drummer Teddy Moller, who switches sticks for strings and microphone to become the new front man for Loch Vostok.

With this new band Moller has his mind set on a heavier sound than that of Mayadome and the result is the band latest release 'Destruction Time Again'.  The album brings together the best of both the progressive styling and the heavier thrash sounds in quite a powerful package.

The album opens up with ‘Humanitix’, a track that brings those two stylings to the forefront from the off, with Moller’s distinctive vocals intertwined with some soaring guitars and keyboards against a monstrous rhythm section.

The album builds on the first track with ‘Rebound’, another track that rampages through with some fantastic drums courtesy of Alvaro Torres, only this time bringing in some female backing vocals to bring a different perspective to the album and isn’t as dark as the previous track.

 ‘Jonestown Slumber Party’ is more of an angry assault on the senses with the more growling style vocals, but these don’t distract from the quality of the musicianship of the rest of the band and the gentle guitar solo midway through that is superseded by the more extreme guitar sound blend remarkably well.

The extreme metal element of the band takes over with ‘Xerox Nation’ a track which takes a stab at the never changing world theory, and ponders will we ever learn by our mistakes.

The pounding drums of Torres are at their most prominent on ‘Autumn Lord’, but it’s the title track that really shows what a powerhouse drummer he really is.  This is mixed with the heavy bass lines of Tomas Jonnson and some more soaring keyboards courtesy of Fredrik Lindahl, but is the guitars that really make this track on of my favourites off the album.

The album takes on a more gentle turn with ‘Symbiosis’ and ‘Falself’ two tracks that are more traditional progressive metal songs while retaining that edge.  The aggressive side of the band hasn’t been totally set aside as the next two tracks ‘Talk’ and ‘True Deciever’ brings back that side of the band with vengeance.  The album closes with ‘Gestalt’ a track that starts of slowly but quickly builds into a metal fest of snarling vocals and threshing guitars, before delving back to the slower guitar riffs only to build up again.  A great track that leaves you wanting more and that’s how an album should be.

Fans of both the more gentler side of progressive metal and the harder faster side of the genre will stand side by side in judgement of this album and will surely see the band making major steps in their career over 2006.