I commend Apiary, not for their technicality, sense of songwriting, or anything that actually has to do with their music, for that matter. No, I commend these young artists for their stamina. As, they have written and recorded 56 minutes of mind-numbing and sensuously unappealing tech-whatever, and have survived the process. In a nutshell, this album cannot be recommended to anyone. It's boring.

I know why music like this gets made. Bands like Ion Dissonance and The End have previously gone out on a limb and made compelling statements with this style of music, the former composing something I'd go so far as to consider great. Reviewers aren't usually supposed to wear their musical preferences on their sleeve, but I'll freely admit to thinking those bands were inspired. Apiary are not. Also, I'm angry at them for having a name that made me think they might be a death metal band. Anyways, as I alluded to in the intro, these songs are a bore to listen to. But, I cannot imagine how boring they are to play. When I hear an album this uninteresting I often try to gaze into the songwriting process with my mind to get an idea of what had caused things to go so wrong. What I see is a group of guys trying to capture the aesthetic of the aforementioned bands, which they have. What you'll hear on the surface level is a din of jarring technical deathcore. Which, if you're 12, will rock you like a hurricane. A TECH hurricane, that is. Unfortunately, there's nothing beneath this facade. While on Breathing is Irrelevant the swirling maelstrom was really just a cover for breathtakingly complex and melodic compositions, Lost in Focus offers just more din...and not particularly interestingly din. Compounding matters is how uninteresting these songs are, even from a technical standpoint. It's dissonant. There are scale runs. The timing on the breakdowns (read: entire songs) is untraditional. But the arrangements are haphazard and the pacing is lethargic. Again, the aesthetic is captured, but not the the spirit.

I shouldn't be talking about better bands in what is, after all, Apiary's review. But, what I'm really trying to do is prove a point. A point that Apiary either don't understand or just disregard. That point is this. Music, at the end of the day, has to sound good. That's right, even tech-shit-yank-my-dick-core. And, Apiary are mistaken if they believe that the leaders of this genre have gotten to the top purely on tech and volume alone. You have to write songs the listener will care about and listen to again. Apiary have not. Too much JUN JUN WEE WEE, not enough good...