Pomegranate Tiger - Entities (2013)

Previously unbeknownst to me, Scale the Summit already had some competition this year from this excellent upstart instrumental band out of Canada. While the two bands are very similar in many respects, Pomegranate Tiger focus more on the riffs and "metalness" of their music as opposed to StS's emphasis on melody and atmosphere. And I must say, PT do write some awesome riffs; some of them are even quite groovy. The songs here are incredibly well-constructed and nothing feels out of place. There's even a nice bit of atmosphere in the form of three or four acoustic tracks. I'm really impressed by this album though it could have been even stronger if they had cut out one or two songs because it feels a tad long to me. I can't say Entities matches up to The Migration, but it comes close and definitely warrants many repeated listens. This band quite clearly has loads of potential and I'm excited to see what they do next.
9/10