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Progressive Metal is what you get from Germany's Tangent Plane here on their new album, Project Elimi. This isn't the smooth Progressive Metal of, say, Threshold and their graceful time changes. It is more in the vein of early Fates Warning, who altered time signatures with jarring rapidity. Not to imply that Project Elimi is the equal of The Spectre Within or Awaken the Guardian, as it isn't by a long shot. They've got the rapid time shifts down but songwriting is Tangent Plane's biggest hurdle.

The band's musical talent is there, but beyond that there aren't a lot of positives on Project Elimi. The songs are long and that only underscores how much they sound like different songs stitched together randomly. There is not a lot of flow and the songs are choppy. Some of the choruses sound like they were shoe-horned into the songs ("Deadborn," "Borrow Me Your Dullness.") Singer Jan Michaelis' vocals recall Iron Fire's Martin Steene and Cirith Ungol's Tim Baker, at times. More often, however, his overuse of vocal slides and excessive vibrato sound out of place and get tiresome quickly.

There are definitely some catchy moments on Project Elimi, but so much of the album is chaotic and unfocused, finding them isn't worth the effort. Long complicated songs do not automatically equal good Progressive Metal. Die hard Progressive Metal fans might find some charm in Project Elimi but it is likely few others will.