Glenn Snelwar played on the first Gordian Knot album but soon ventured off into his own musical voyage. He has teamed up with bass man Michael Manring who also plays with Tim Alexander (Primus) in Attention Deficit Disorder. Finally, drum beast Mark Zonder (ex-Fates Warning) takes care of the exquisite drum parts on this album. I still consider it to be a huge loss for Fates Warning that he left.

These three highly talented musicians have crafted an instrumental album which defies any labelling of music style. Swiftly integrating influences from progressive rock, metal, classical music, jazz, bluegrass and what not, this blending of styles is nothing short of taking your breath away.
Sometimes the overall feel and mood of the songs remind me of Gordian Knot but Sean Malone's music enables me to relax a bit more. The music featured on this debut album of At War With Self is spicy, stuffed with great guitar picks, riffs, leads, beautiful hypnotizing bass lines and mindblowing drum parts. The easeness with which these 3 musicians shift from textures, time signatures, musical themes, density and overall feel is beyond words.
While many albums claim to feature elements you will only find out after repeated spins, "Torn between dimensions" has been spinning in my CD player for several months now and I still haven't been able to discover all the splendour featured on this album!

If the album title "Torn between dimensions" refers to the extensive inner conflicts human beings experience then this is the best possible soundtrack for such inner conflicts.
Despite how inferior or inadequate this review is, At War With Self release an instrumental album which claims the title of best instrumental album of 2005 and I will guarantee you no other band will be able to come even close!!

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Other articles for At War With Self:

Interview		"if the music has no soul I can’t listen to it, no matter how technically brilliant it might be"»	by Ron 17 Sep, 2008
Album review		Acts of god»	by Ron 23 Aug, 2007
Interview		"For now, At War With Self is purely a studio project."»	by Ron 15 Aug, 2005