Animals as Leaders is an American instrumental progressive metal band formed in 2007 by guitarist Tosin Abasi. Their self-titled debut album was recorded in 2008 with Abasi performing most guitar and bass parts and engineer Misha Mansoor contributing additional guitar solos, drums, and effects. In 2012, Mansoor began writing with Abasi for their third album The Joy of Motion, which was released in 2014 on Sumerian Records. Although Abasi was initially in the metalcore band Reflux, his debut solo album under Animals as Leaders in 2009 helped propel the project to prominence in progressive rock and metal.

2. Animals as Leaders is an American instrumental progressive metal band formed by
guitarist Tosin Abasi in 2007. It currently features guitarist Javier Reyes and drummer Matt
Garstka.
The project's first album, Animals as Leaders, was recorded in early 2008. Abasi recorded most
guitar and bass tracks on the album; a few guitar solos, drums and various synthesized effects
were programmed by engineer Misha Mansoor of Periphery and Haunted Shores. The album
was released April 28, 2009 by Prosthetic Records.

4. On November 28, 2012, Misha
Mansoor, the producer for the first
Animals as Leaders album, announced
that he'd begun writing riffs with Tosin
Abasi, intending to start recording on
their third album. Two days later, it
was confirmed that Mansoor was
recording the band after the
completion of two songs. On February
14, 2014 the band announced their
third studio album, The Joy of Motion,
which was released via Sumerian
Records on March 25, 2014.

5. When Tosin Abasi released his debut solo album under the moniker ANIMALS AS LEADERS
in 2009, few would have predicted the band’s meteoric rise to the apex of the progressive
rock/metal world. Although Abasi earned acclaim as the lead guitarist in the Washington,
D.C.-based metalcore act Reflux, it was still a long-shot that an instrumental album of
progressive metal with jazz, electronic and ambient flourishes would develop anything
more than a cult following.