You might have noticed that I have a routine of genre-tagging bands right in the first paragraph of a review I’m writing, in case my readers aren’t bored enough to go through 300 words describing an album which is not of interest to them. Well, this time you’ll just have to read the review, because this stuff is hard to pigeonhole.

Prominent bass, prominent drums (I quit counting around the sixth drum solo), a guitar player channeling every (positive) cliché in metal guitar, from riffs and guitarmonies laden with Maiden-worship to classic shredding, short appearances of synths/piano and a singer with a gentle, melodious approach take you on a journey through heavy, prog, thrash, and Opethian – or more precisely, Damnation-esque – ballads. Random cameos of other (metal and non-metal) subgenres find their place here as well. The genre-hopping doesn’t take place within songs themselves – each (long!) song is mostly dedicated to one particular “style”.

Stealing Axion presents an interesting case study in just what exactly is meant by the term “progressive” with the band’s debut full-length “Moments.” Does combining different styles make a band progressive? Is it throwing in ‘70s rock vibes, or is it meshing clean and harsh repeatedly? Is djent the new prog? “Moments” ends up an album that will likely have many die-hard supporters, but just as many die-hard detractors, as it loses its own identity in the quest to be “progressive metal.”

This is an album that is amazing on a strictly musical and technical proficiency level, but overall is still a bit of an aimless mess. The style and atmosphere changes at the drop of a hat, and each song is massively different from any other. There’s power metal, death metal, a whole lot of Meshuggah worship, and yes, even some mallcore from time to time. Opener “Mirage of Hope” has a quasi-hardcore vibe, along with breakdowns and electronic elements. “Sleepless” starts out with a creepy mix of black and death, while “It’s Too Late Now” drops the metal and plunges into soft and clean territory.