Animals As Leaders

Animals As Leaders are a progressive metal band from Washington D.C. and despite their youth as a band, they've been making a big impression on the metal scene. The founder of the band, Tosin Abasi, is an up-and-coming guitarist that rivals many of the great guitarists of the past. Tosin has razor-sharp technique which he has used to push his songwriting further. I was floored when I first heard their first tracks on myspace.

The first and only album (so far) is the self-titled debut Animals As Leaders. A year or two before it was released in 2009, Tosin Abasi had many ideas, but nothing ready for a full album. So Tosin Abasi went to Misha Mansoor aka "Bulb", who so happened to live a few minutes away, and asked him to program the drums and produce the album. Contrary to popular belief though, Misha wound up doing a lot more than that for the record. He and Tosin co-write a large part of the album. Sometimes, Misha just added layers to riffs and provided transitions, but Misha states that there were times when he and Tosin were writing riffs second by second, together. Unfortunately, Misha was never credited for being part of the songwriting process. But after listening to his songs for over 6 years, I can certainly say that Misha's contributions are prominent. Check it out for yourselves!




Following the debut release, the album reached worldwide popularity in no time. Tosin went out to find touring members, and wound up recruiting a full band. Animals As Leaders is now Tosin Abasi, Navene Koperweis (ex-Animosity) and Javier Reyes. They've been touring extensively with a wide range of bands and now they are set to release another full-length named Weightless on November 08, 2011. The album can be preordered here:

http://prostheticrecords.bigcartel.com/


In lieu of this new release, here's me playing "Modern Meat" from the self titled. This is the first video I uploaded to youtube, so the quality's far from being the best.



Enjoy!