It may be clear; I have a weakness for this kind of heavy music. This album is a real listen-to album, not one to go totally crazy on. A comparison with Tool is made up fast, except that the technical parts are less present and the ‘in trance melodies’ occur even more often. The songs are pretty long and it took the band four years to record this album.

Have you ever been so much into a record that you stand up from your chair and start to walk a bit weird in your room, while making some movements with your body, trying to cope with and understand the music? Personally speaking, I’m making some kind of movements like a conductor of an orchestra, with my right hand. While doing this I’m excluding myself from the environment and try to go with the flow of the songs.

Speaking a little bit about the music again, it’s quite technical without the heavy slamming on the guitar; you will likely here more dark loops that make some weird melodies throughout the long song structures that will never bother. Because the songs are so long, the tension is build up quite slowly (like in ‘All we had’) most of the times, without the real big bang in the middle. But that’s ok, because I don’t think it would have fit in the music. The vocals aren’t present that much; most of the time it’s just the music. This is also a wise decision; clean singing that makes the music of Tool so strong is not present that much, emphasizing more and more that this band is doing something of their own. The parts that do contain vocals, grunts, are like a nightmare or a weird dream. Not like very ugly, but in a bad dream, created by your imagination. Finally, the guitar is representing hope, especially in the final song, when sunset comes in again. 

The cd has ended, and I’m the first one to wake up. I’m a little but fuzzy and confused, yet I feel alive. I don’t know exactly what has happened during the last hour but I’m sure that it was something good, considering the environment I’m in. It’s already starting to get light outside, and I walk slowly towards the coffee machine. After that I see that the cd player is still on and I decide to put on the last song of the record inside. For a few moments I stare towards my friends and one of them awakes. ‘Hey man, have I been sleeping dude?’ ‘Yes you have, but that’s ok. You want some coffee?’ ‘Yeah, sure, that would be great. Did you have a good time last night?’ ‘Me? Yes I did.’

 

‘Yes, I did, actually’.