Song Reveiw Project

"CAFO" by Animals as Leaders is one of the most beautiful, inspirational and talented songs I have ever heard in my life. Animals as Leaders is a solo project started by Tosin Abasi (an 8-string guitar prodigy). After disbanding with his last band, his record label did not want his talent to go to waste, so they offered him the opportunity to do a solo project. The result, Animals as Leaders, a 3-piece instrumental band with all tracks (Drums, two 8-string guitars) written by Abasi except for "CAFO". "CAFO" is a collaboration song done by Animals as Leaders with the help of Misha Monsoor a.k.a. Bulb (another progressive metal prodigy).
               The song title "CAFO" stands for "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations", it is titled as so to reflect on Abasi's idea that Animals Should be equal to humans.
The song begins with a barrage of guitar sweeps (so fast they sound computerized) accompanied by an off-beat guitar to exaggerate the sweeps and an abnormal drum beat with an excessive amount of cymbal use. The rhythm riffs change during the duration of the sweeps to build to a section where Abasi taps a bass line and a lead rhythm at the same time. This section of the song has a dramatic mood change from the sweeps to the tapping, it is accented with some choir effect give it a nice background effect to go along with the melody. The section overall sounds melodic and fast fast but also has a distressful feel. To flow out of that rhythm Bulb uses more offbeat guitar patterns to draw your attention away from the tapping and then transition you towards Abasi's first solo.
 Tosin's solo begins with slow effected chords that break with him speeding up and doing a fast melodic solo that he plays twice. the solo consists of a 7- string shred that leads to an ascending triplet feeling four bars. The rhythm on the solo is just generic chords but could not fit more perfectly. The song then breaks with Bulb's first lead riff, which is a slower couple riffs he plays on the high strings and lets the notes ring. Accompanying the lead is "djenting" done by Abasi. "Djenting" is palm muting and quick string release done on the "beefier strings" with extremely high gain tone. It is a unique sound when included with reverb, yet Tosin and Bulb are one of only a few bands who use it .
Abasi then plays a melodic clean lead that leads into the next progressive styled solo. Bulb uses the Djenting technique as he rhythm for the solo.
The song then progresses to a heavy off beat lead provided by bulb, the riff has a nice strong metal feel but is extremely chaotic, making it perfect to head-bang to. The song fades back to the original sweep barrage intro, where it climaxes with the second repetition of the intro, then fades out.
The amount of time put in to writing Cafo must have been a millennium. Cafo is my favourite song by Animals as Leaders, it  demonstrates most of my favourite styles of music. It is truly a  prime example of amazing music. You don't have to like it, you just have to appreciate it.