The document provides an analysis of the song "The Woven Web" by the instrumental metal band Animals As Leaders. It describes the song's structure as following a modified sonata form with an exposition, development, and recapitulation. The exposition introduces two themes, while the development section builds on these themes violently. The recapitulation restates the themes before resolving in a codetta and coda. Overall, the song demonstrates Animals As Leaders' ability to blend genres like metal, jazz, and world music through advanced guitar techniques and polyrhythms.

1. David Reichel
Music Theory 2229 – Dr. Lively
0
The Woven Web
Spun by a Trio of Virtuosos
David Reichel

2. Reichel
1
The Woven Web: Spun by a Trio of Virtuosos
Animals As Leaders is, to put it simply, a heavy metal trio with two guitars and a
drummer; what they really are however, is a sonic amalgamation, combining elements of
metal, jazz, and world music, with backgrounds in mathematics, gospel, and classical
music. Each member has been praised for their technical and musical skills, with
guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes giving clinics and appearing on magazine covers,
and drummer Matt Garstka having given clinics at PASIC, doing interviews with big
companies such as Meinl and Vic Firth, and also appeared on the cover of Modern
Drummer. This praise doesn’t come without due cause.
Animals As Leaders are known for both the complexities in their music and their
melodic capabilities; their song CAFO stands out for its blisteringly fast chromatic guitar
riff in the intro before moving to a chugging groove based in 9/4, while their song The
Brain Dance opens with an acoustic guitar arrangement that flows from 6/8 to 4/4 and
vice versa before transitioning into a 5:4 polyrhythmic feel. Chromaticism, polyrhythms,
advanced guitar techniques, and guttural basslines are all inspired by a plethora of genres,
from RnB and Metal from the likes of D’Angelo and Meshuggah, to jazz and Drum-and-
Bass, like Kurt Rosenwinkel and Roni Size; all these artists are included in Abasi’s list of
his favorite records of all time.
While CAFO and The Brain Dance are two of the more popular Animals As
Leaders songs, they are not what I will be focusing on today. Instead, The Woven Web,
off their album The Joy of Motion, is what inspired this paper. It seems to follow a
modernized, more liberal version of the sonata form, with an exposition, development,
and recapitulation like the more common sonata form, but with some liberties taken with

3. Reichel
2
the style of development, then the codetta and coda to finish it out. The whole song is
based in f# minor but moves chromatically at different points.
Exposition
Synth Intro (1)
A (2-5)
B (6-13) - V
A (14-17)
B’ (18-25) - V
Development (26-53)
Recapitulation (54-77)
C (54-67)
A’ (68-77)
Codetta (34-38)
Coda (77)
The exposition starts out with a 1 bar synthesizer intro that repeats itself 7 times
before moving into the first theme that moves in a mostly scalar fashion. A second theme
follows, with a more relaxed rhythmic feel that builds off of the dominant until it repeats

4. Reichel
3
from the first theme, and ends with a slight alteration to the end of the second theme’s
repetition to set it up, along with the drums, for the development.
Developments are usually meant to build off or play with the ideas introduced in
the exposition, and the one in this song does so violently, holding much of the appeal in
the song and one of their fans’ most loved sections. It starts out with a muted guitar
rhythm on the dominant that goes for 4 bars before being joined by the drums, which
further emphasize the brevity and staccato nature with stacked cymbals and a dead bass
drum. This duet carries on for a few more bars until some clean, open guitar chords enter
the mix that sit in the background until the other instruments drop out, resolving the
tension for the time being. After 8 bars of the solo open chords, guitar parts affected by
distortion pedals and the drums come in to enforce the dominant and set the scene for the
guitar solo to come in another 8 bars later. This wall of sound goes for another 8 bars,
which is essentially the formula by this point, before moving into the beginning of the
recapitulation.
The recapitulation begins with a 7/8 section that’s reminiscent of the small
stretches of 4/4 present in the second theme before moving into said theme. After
carrying this motive, they quickly move back to a variation on the first theme to set up for
the codetta. The codetta in this song is a repetition of part of the development that moves
into the coda, an empty bar for the song to fade out.

5. Reichel
4

6. Reichel
5

7. Reichel
6

8. Reichel
7
This work by the group is a great example of what they can do, from the soft open
chord section, to the chugging part at the beginning of the development. A wide range is
essential for any musical act to succeed and they’ve seen lots of it, with 3 albums
charting in the top 10 for the US Hard Rock charts, numerous headlining tours, and
clinics all over the nation. Animals As Leaders is an excellent example of how to blend
genres, and how to play the music industry game right; the only way for them to go is up,
until they’re regarded as one of, if not the best act of their kind.