CHARCOAL GRACE

These young veterans from Brisbane, Australia, (the heirs of Karnivool?) are back with their sixth studio album of "Melodic" Progressive Metal--the kind that I can take, even enjoy--all since 2010.

1. "The World Breathes with Me" (10:00) melodic and atmospheric, even as the metal chord progressions and drumming begin. (18.5/20)

2. "Golem" (5:20) chaotic and volatile, just like its namesake. The first two motifs are throwaways but the chorus shows some promise. The instrumental passage following the second chorus is great: so focused and disciplined. (8.75/10)

3. "Charcoal Grace I: Prey" (7:48) the opening sounds like top notch bombastic symphonic prog metal to me. After a 90 second intro the music empties out leaving only some sparse notes emanating from a "distant" MIDIed keyboard (guitar generated, I'm assuming). This near-empty space is where Jim Grey enters as a singer. Gradually, the rest of the band rejoins and ramps up into some serious Prog Metal. Great performances from drummer Josh Griffin and bassist Dale Prinsse as well as Sam Vallen on guitars. Jim's vocals in the chorus parts are a bit weak--like pop stylish, not power metal. The rest of the song elements are all TOOL-quality. The song ends with 45 seconds of those spacious "distant" guitar notes before bleeding into . . . (13.5/15) 4. "Charcoal Grace II: A World Without" (6:48) for the first minute, pensive guitar arpeggi are layered within soft-played drums and bass, but the there is a big crescendo to end the Intro. After this the music drops down to low, delicate levels--including the vocal performance of Jim Grey that begins in the second minute--until the 2:02 mark when the band jumps back into higher volumes. The music, however, remains rather tame and melodic: as if a pop-oriented love song were being delivered with metal instruments and effects but still using the simple, melodic chords and rhythms. At the fourth minute we begin a cool tension-filled instrumental passage in which the group's ominous rhythm pattern provides all of the entertainment (no solos) and tension. Then they ramp back up for more simple chord play to support Jim's continued vocal delivery until a Coutnry-twanged solo guitar finish. (13.375/15) 5. "Charcoal Grace III: Vigil" (3:22) solo arpeggiated acoustic guitar play before Jim enters with a delicate MAYNARD KEENAN JAMES vocal to match the acoustic guitar. Beautiful stuff that definitely continues to support and embellish the band and album's heavy, metallic atmosphere in the RIVERSIDE/MARIUS DUDA way. Very cool song! Which leads perfectly into . . . (9/10) 6. "Charcoal Grace IV: Give Me Hell" (6:13) rising out of the beauty of the previous song, this one ramps up in two or three steps before stepping back into a kind of MYRATH-like motif with Jim Grey's vocal muted with some heavy processing. It's cool, it's menacing, it's but ends up being a little weak in its full effect. (Because of the b vox? or the standard melody lines?) The cool "desperate" rap vocal in the fourth minute would be cooler were it not so familiar (coming from the SAGA/LINKIN PARK/FATES WARNING/OPETH/PAIN OF SALVATION tradition). Unfortunately, it's rendered so well that I have to admit that I love this part: it's so powerful--it actually saves what is otherwise a rather poor song. (8.875/10)

7. "Sails" (4:31) delicate finger-picked shoegaze electric guitar arpeggiated chords open this one before Jim Grey's gentle and delicate voice joins in. At 53 seconds in the swooning lead electric guitar replicates Jim's main melody while the rest of the band jumps in to support. With the next round of vocals (now doubled up) the palette of support instruments creates a GENESIS Wind and Wuthering like lushness--like "Your Own Special Way." At the three-minute mark, after the second go-round of the vocals, the band ramps up for an excellent fiery/impassioned guitar solo before guitar and band revert into the Wind and Wuthering melody of lushness. Interesting! And well done! (8.875/10)

8. "The Stormchaser" (5:57) a great prog metal "ballad." Love the play of the rhythm section and atmospherics created by the guitars--and the awesome little solo in the fifth minute. Great vocal performance from Jim Grey. (9/10)

9. "Mute" (12:00) Jim Grey's plaintive voice minimally supported for the first minute before the full band joins in with great bombast. (Sounds a bit like KARNIVOOL's Ian Kenny.) Just as quickly the sound palette returns to bare-bones spacious simplicity wit h slowly arpeggiated electric guitar, synth, rim shots and spaced out bass and bass drum notes as Jim's tender voice sings breathily. The choruses are more dynamic and almost heavy, but it's not until the band moves out of the vocal passage at 3:50 that full prog tech metal sounds start spitting, stuttering, rapid-firing, and djenting out. Something is off about the way the producers have mixed Jim's voice: almost hidden within the djenty walls of sound. It's as if Jim is trying to sing a theatric near-operatic aria over/within only metal musicians and their metal sounds to accompany him! At the end of the seventh minute the music cuts away leaving a gulf of open space that is gradually filled by synths, gentle guitar and keyboard and tuned percussion notes, and flute. It's super pretty-- almost achingly beautiful--but then at 8:14 the walls of symphonic metal come cascading back in, the drummer ramps up and the lead guitar launches into a wonderfully flexible display of "tender" tech metal shredding. At 9:55 everybody stops, again, leaving an empty room that Jim attempts to fill with some shy humming, but then everybody leaps back into full symph-metal mode again so Jim and his mates can once more state their case. Then the music goes all washy and atmospheric for a prolonged keyboard outro. Nice but somewhat unsure or unclear commitment to multiple personalities. (22.125/25)

Total Time 61:59

The soft/delicate passages on this album surprise me--as do the occasional NeoProg sound palettes. I prefer the complex rhythms with atmospheric metal music and rather than the softer EINAR SOLBERG-like nuanced vocal- dominated passages.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of Atmospheric Prog Metal that suffers from inconsistency and a stylistic scatteredness; perhaps the band is vacillating on its future (on its commitment to hard core Prog Metal).