“Greeted As Liberators” is Toronto-based v01d’s second album, after 2009’s “Burnt Upon Re-Entry”. Seven years has been v01d plenty of time to create something accomplished, polished, with very rich production- but potentially over that time, also slightly watered-down.

Though branded as industrial metal, this is an accessible album which respects pop music- think the harder side of Pop Will Eat Itself, Blue Stahli or Celldweller. The vocoded vocal sections on tracks like “All The Rage” are even Hyperbubble-esque. The cinematic flavours of “Veils Will Fall” and “Exit Strategy” could pass as a bit of Tom Halkenborg film score.

“Hoof To The Sky” has all the regular ingredients- heavy guitar loops with attitude and screaming two-note solos- yet you find yourself wondering, “what would happen if he had turned all this up to 10? Because right now it feels like he’s turned it up to 7.” The skills are all there clearly but it feels like the shackles have been left on. This is perhaps most true in the vocals- the arrangements lend themselves to heartfelt screams and full-on throat-wrecking passionate rock vocals, yet vocally it’s often understated, almost polite. “I question your commitment” is a lyric from “Exit Strategy”, and there’s a certain irony in that since that’s the strongest vocal on the album.

The gentler sections of “Abhor A Vacuum” and much of the closing track “The Sun Is Late” drift towards drone and shoegaze sounds, and it would have been equally interesting to hear an extended journey in that direction, but as it stands “Greeted As Liberators” unfortunately feels like it’s not quite enough of any one thing to really stand out.