Time in Place
Time in Place makes melodic post-hardcore feel open to a wide range of ideas. Artifex Pereo bring together detailed guitars, active drums, expressive singing and keyboards that add more than background colour. The arrangements can become complicated, but the musicians usually retain enough energy to make that complexity engaging.
No Stranger to Worry provides a strong introduction. The guitar and drum parts create movement around the melody, giving the song a clear sense of the band's instrumental ability. Hands of Penance takes a more forceful route, using an unusual structure without losing the impact of its heavier playing. These early songs show how well the group can connect detail with momentum.
The keyboards are especially useful in separating the music from a standard guitar-and-voice approach. Their blues-influenced sound gives the record a different texture, while The Straight & The Winding Way puts that playing inside a particularly strong groove. The additional colour helps the changing arrangements feel purposeful.
Liable for Tragedy finds interest in the voices themselves. The contrast between a more refined lead delivery and a rougher singing part gives the song another way to change character. It is an effective use of the band's range without needing every musical turn to become a larger instrumental display.
The performances are impressive, but the album's complete shape is less convincing. Some of the elaborate writing passes without leaving an equally clear melodic memory. Laugh & The World Laughs with You can feel frantic rather than fully focused, and the quieter closing Overview offers less impact than the stronger material before it. The slower pieces provide necessary contrast, though they do not always show the band at their best.
At nearly fifty minutes, the sequence also needs more editing. There are many good individual ideas, but the amount of activity makes them harder to take in together. A shorter album with clearer differences between its strongest songs would bring the writing into sharper focus.
Even with those reservations, Time in Place has a distinctive musical appeal. The guitars, drums and keys work with confidence, and the singing gives their changing patterns an expressive centre. Its ambition is sometimes greater than its focus, but the most effective songs make that ambition worthwhile.
