ANIMALS AS LEADERS
"As satisfying in their visceral kick as they are in dazzling displays of dexterity." - Rolling Stone
It might sound strange to associate "storytelling" with instrumental music. But ANIMALS AS LEADERS jettisoned the rules, limitations, and boundaries of conventional rock music from the start. Armed with palette-expanding eight-string guitars, rich synths, and pummeling percussive grooves, the trio is beloved by metalheads, aspiring virtuosos, jazz fanatics, and casual listeners alike. As Pitchfork observed, "Animals As Leaders have walked the tightrope between sheer technical virtuosity and actual emotional resonance." Even without vocals, this is intimate, mythmaking music.
Animals As Leaders began as a solo outlet for guitarist Tosin Abasi, whose creative partnership with classically trained guitarist Javier Reyes and Berklee-educated drummer Matt Garstka is built on a shared love of everything from fusion to technical death metal. Garstka graced the cover of Modern Drummer in 2015. In one of his many appearances on their cover, Guitar World named Tosin among the Guitarists of the Decade. Rolling Stone featured him as part of their "Young Guns" series. The Chicago Tribune declared him "the closest thing prog-metal has to an Eddie Van Halen."
PLINI
PLINI is an independent solo artist from Sydney, Australia. He composes, plays guitar, records, produces and manages his unique brand of instrumental progressive rock all from a home studio.
His critically-acclaimed debut album "HANDMADE CITIES" was voted #5 in Guitar World Magazine's "20 best guitar albums of the decade," and described by STEVE VAI as "one of the finest, forward thinking, melodic, rhythmically and harmonically deep, evolution of rock/metal instrumental guitar records I have ever heard." Routinely mentioned in "best guitarist" lists, PLINI was named #4 in the "Top 10 best prog guitarists in the world today" by Music Radar in early 2020. His latest album "IMPULSE VOICES" was recorded and released in late 2020 during the uncertainty of the pandemic and received a multitude of rave reviews, and has already been streamed millions of times.
Over the last few years, PLINI has toured the world supporting bands like ANIMALS AS LEADERS, PERIPHERY, TESSERACT and INTERVALS, as well as playing festivals and headlining his own tours all over North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and India. In 2018, PLINI was the first instrumental act ever to play the legendary Download Festival in the UK.
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