even moreso than the synergy between the instruments, i think this works because of the production. it's organic and warm, as opposed to the stiff robotic production a lot of technical metal tries to use. the end result is that this album has - gasp - atmosphere, and that just makes it a lot more interesting to listen to
but also because these guys just play off each other really well. there's no "prominent instrument" here, the guitar, drums, and bass all play about an equal role in every track and it's great
pretest still blows though lol so they're only 1 for 2