Artist: Opensight
Title: The Outfit
Genre: Prog Rock / Prog Metal / Metal / Instrumentals / Film Music
Release Date: 15th May 2026
Label: Inertial Music
Album Review
Back in 2022 OPENSIGHT released ‘Mondo Fiction’, their 2nd full length album since their inception / creation in the early 2000s. The album was full of aural panoramas, sweeping guitars, tension, furtive slinkiness and the usual film score nods. Since around 2003 and the release of the demo ‘Dialectic’ the band has gone through subtle line-up changes and in that time a dozen singles have been released showcasing the songcraft improvement to the point where the new album ‘The Outfit’ moves forward from a coming of age into a new age of knowing possibility.
‘Killer Outfit’ opens the album with a progressive vibe, brass Spaghetti, chugging guitars and “chicken scratch” wah-wah. The sound is uncluttered and each instrument is decipherable. I’m not wasting energy trying to pick out sounds, I can flit between them with ease. You can, all through this album feel an “orchestra” vibe. It’s not there permanently but the vibe comes in at salient moments in the listening experience. Nice bass as well, a growl of nonchalance.
‘In Plain Sight’ is jaunty to start with, teasing in fact. There’s an organ sound and that furtiveness again. And then some IRON MAIDEN guitar styling that noodle along before soaring upwards. Towards the end strings move in to the space along with an organ. And there’s some nice use of the high hat along with a soaring note perfect guitar solo at the mid-point of the track. At the end I can see a hunched figure with bony elbows looming over a large keyboard bashing the ivories whilst looking over their shoulder sniggering...
’Defying Eye’ comes in 3rd place, as in a relay from the previous track. Strings and then intense guitar, the vibe more urgent. It’s still cinematically spacious though. I like the bass, half notes followed by a running line, simple but deep and resonant, backed up by spaghetti style guitars which become more OPETH like as things move on. The strings are so sharp I could cut wood with them. All the guitar parts on the album are intricately noodling when the tracks require them. That is the same as the previous album, not a pander to ego at all.
‘Iris’ comes next and commences with muted plucking, the pace is slower in places, almost a plod before picking up on the chorus. One guitar chugs whilst the other slices across it. The bass moving up and down a scale, the drums flitting from here and there sketching in gaps or adding depth elsewhere. The tone: Questioning and pensive. This track is an ear worm though. Every morning I get up and even before my feet hit the floor this track starts up in my head and follows me to the bathroom where the bass accompanies me whilst I clean my teeth. Let’s conjure up a track by the Italian band Hapax from memory. Nope, back I go to ‘Iris’ A short sample ends the track and...
Followed by a riff to start ‘Broken Vow’ that reminds me of something, it enters my consciousness quickly and leaves even quicker leaving me stuck with an unresolved recognition that irks me like an itch I can’t scratch. But the rest of the track moves along easily with numerous guitar lines gyrating with each other and ebullient drumming. The track has a confident charisma my brain won’t stop hooking onto. And that bass, resonant and woody, I can almost taste it. In fact I just licked my own bass and it doesn’t taste like I imagine this bass tastes like. (gargles water).
‘Mantra’ is a good track! Warm hypnotic acoustic vibes, sinewy guitars, OPETH-like vocals and regimented and hypnotic drums that lock you into the hypnotic aura. The guitar chugs and towards the end they get more reverb and there’s a whistle and click. Loving the drums at the 3.28 mark. The bass and drums lead on this one methinks, good stuff. A quick morph into ‘The Directors Curse’ with pulsed horns and eerie stings that remind me again of something else that I can’t quite put my finger on, aaahhh yes it reveals itself, a KAMPFAR vibe. It reminds of something ‘Ophidians Manifest’.
And next its ‘Final Cut’ The trademark wah-wah sounds like a bark, its then absorbed behind the other instrument and vocals. The drums on this track draw my attention more so than on other tracks, they are expressive and busy. Not overtly so but they are there. At the half way point the guitars get wah-wah watery, and then sinewy clean. This is a muso track, my ears follow all the sounds and then follow them back again.
We are near album end dear reader. The penultimate track is ‘Heist’ It starts with an organ in the style of a pitter patter octave jump. This sounds like Arcturus, cosmologically symphonic. A pitch shift sound adds to this feeling. ‘Delusion’ ends the album and the aforementioned ARCTURUS vibe lingers. Not like a rancid fart in a lift but more like tang left behind after one has eaten a lemon drizzle cake. The vibe lolls from side to side in a glass eyed way as I am eased into a lower brainwave intensity. The drums flit from here to there like Pink Floyd in the ‘Live in Pompeii’ era and the guitars do a good impression of David Gilmore , the guitar line is sublime, before the album ends without fanfare.
In summary, its subtly better than the last album in regards to craftsmanship. You may not be able to tell but I can. It feels more considered and mature. As I mentioned above the mixing is spacious and not cluttered. My ears got a workout without being over taxed and tired out by an over busy production and I think that on the whole all the elements got fair billing.
And there’s a nod, intentionally or not to IRON MAIDEN, OPETH, ARCTURUS, KAMPFAR even DIR EN GREY. In the PR material I got with the album it says that the album feels cinematic yet visceral, with balanced intensity, melody and invention. I can’t better that so I won’t even try. The vocal also sounds like a band I was in 15 years ago which was a surprise when I realised the similarities.
Tracklist
01. Procesion De La Muerte
02. Killer Outfit
03. In Plain Sight
04. Defying Eye
05. Iris ( I Rise)
06. Broken Vow
07. Mantra
08. The Directors Curse
09. Final Cut
10. Heist
11. Delusion
Line-up
Ivan David Amaya - Guitars and Vocals
Redd Reddington - Drums and Percussion
Duncan Arkley - Bass Guitar and Backing Vocals
Neil McLaughlin – Guitar
Website
https://www.opensightband.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Total: 9 / 10
