The debut album by Ontologics, 2013’s Something To Needle Over, was a genre-defying trip, encompassing musical elements as diverse as rap, jazz, and world music. However, what was consistent throughout the album were good rock songs, which tied all the other different musical elements together to give one strong cohesive collection.

On the sophomore effort by this Providence, RI duo, nothing has changed. This is not only good, but kind of astonishing. There was never a doubt regarding the phenomenal musical ability of this outfit, but to exploit this skill fully and translate it into an album as brilliant as their debut requires equally skillful songwriting chops. On Drones From Home, the musicianship is on par with its predecessor and even the songwriting is every bit as good. This says a lot about this little-known band and the consistency in their music, especially since the bar set by their debut was so high that anything half as good would suffice as a great album. But Drones From Home is through and through equally as good.

Although this disc has the same basic ingredients as Something To Needle Over, it is more of a rock album as compared to its predecessor. The one song on Needle that came closest to progressive metal was “SWFU,” and on Drones, this is the style that dictates the sound of the entire album. So in a way, this record is more cohesive than its predecessor. On the other hand, however, this album sounds less experimental in comparison.

It is somewhat nice to see a slightly different facet of this band, a facet that wasn’t fully revealed on their debut. Drones From Home certainly has a more proggy sound because of the muscular guitar-driven music, which also means lead vocalist Ian Campopiano’s passionate rapidfire vocals and drummer Matthew Walshe’s insane drumming are more hard-hitting than ever from start to finish.

It is impressive, to say the least, that this unknown and unsigned band has released two such solid albums. And what is cool about this is that Campopiano and Walshe don’t even seem to try too hard; they seem totally self-assured in their attempt to create seriously ambitious music that would certainly call for a much broader lineup, when all they have is each other sharing all the music playing duties. Ontologics might be an understated band, but the immenseness of talent of this duo cannot be overstated enough.

Rating: A

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