Animals As Leaders

Animal as Leaders is an instrumental progressive metal/djent trio comprised of virtuosic Nigerian-American guitarist Tosin Abasi, Berklee-educated drummer Matt Garstka, and classically trained guitarist Javier Reyes. Emerging in 2009, the band found commercial success in 2014 with the release of their third long-player, The Joy of Motion, which reached number one on the Billboard hard rock charts. Subsequent efforts The Madness of Many (2017) and Parrhesia (2022) added elements of jazz fusion, funk, and electronica to the group’s innovative and wide-ranging sound.
After playing for a few years in the mainstream music world as a member of the uniquely virtuosic Washington, D.C.-based metalcore band Reflux, seven- and eight-string guitar wizard Tosin Abasi was asked to record a solo album by the group’s then-label, Prosthetic Records, once the band ceased operations. At first, Abasi declined on the grounds that to do so would be “egotistical,” but he eventually relented and founded a new entity named Animals as Leaders (inspired by Daniel Quinn’s 1992 anthropocentric novel Ishmael) to function as this solo project. An eponymous debut album followed in April 2009 and saw Abasi handling all guitar and bass tracks, while drums and other synthesized sound effects were programmed by engineer Misha Mansoor. Guitarist Javier Reyes joined Abasi on the band’s sophomore effort, Weightless. Released in 2011, it became the first Animals as Leaders effort to crack the Billboard 200. The following year, the band added drummer Matt Garstka to their roster and signed on with Sumerian Records, on which they would release their third album. The resulting The Joy of Motion arrived in 2014 and reached number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart and number one on the hard rock chart.
Described by drummer Matt Garstka as “the most collaborative effort for the band” to date, Madness of Many, the group’s immersive, avant-jazz-leaning fourth studio outing, appeared in 2016. Two years later, they delivered the concert album Animals as Leaders Live 2017, which debuted in the Top 30 of the Billboard Independent Albums chart. In 2022, after a six-year studio break, the trio issued Parrhesia, which deftly combined dizzying technicality with resonant melodicism. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia & James Christopher Monger