COMA ECLIPTIC

It's that time of day again where I review another album from my favorite metal band. So in 2015 after their goliath 2 part epic of The Parallax, it seems the band were hungry for more and wanted to tell more stories. So that was when Coma Ecliptic was conceived, a concept album about a man who is in a coma and explores his own psyche and his past lives. A lot less complex and epic than the Parallax but definitely something that can really be good if done right. This is probably their most divisive album. Mixed reviews from many sites from many people. Some say it is good but others do not like this album at all. I will give my two cents for this album in due time.

First song is Node. This song is an introductory piece for the album moving forward. It is another track that is a staple for the band's music, something that sets the mood. It builds throughout, taking its sweet time to really set the stage moving forward. Here we see the comatose man's introduction as his mind drifts onwards to a light. As everything begins to set in, some awesome guitars start to play. This song is great for really setting the feel for this album moving forward. It's definitely not their best first song out there but it isn't bad by any means.

Next up is The Coma Machine, and I freaking love this song. It goes through some awesome riffs and melodies, with the prominent one being the chorus. We get some of the band's most prominent and clean riffs and vocals here. You can feel the intensity while not being too overwhelmed. It moves through a ton of great movements that just drive home the band's progressive nature. I do admit the ending should've been a little better, but looping back to the beginning is fine but a little cheap. There is also a distinct lack of growls. They are still there but it's mostly singing. The album is clearly trying to do something different and unique here, focusing more on melodies and less on growls and trying to bring the heat up. It is kinda like how Ghost Reveries by Opeth did things, but here it is less classically attuned and more tech metal based. Here the comatose man in his status goes through an imaginary building filled with velvet walls. He soon discovers a machine that can rewind his memories back to his past lives, this is called The Coma Machine. Therefore with no way out of the room he is in, he uses the machine to go to another life. An interesting start for the story, definitely intrigued.

After that is Dim Ignition. This band really loves to experiment with genres and with this track it is less metal, and more electronic. I can definitely hear some inspiration from Vangelis or Kraftwerk in this song. The vocals are also smooth as butter. Tommy really is a great singer no matter if he is screaming or not. I do admit that this track feels a little too short. It has a great melody and everything but it feels like it got cheaped out with it being two minutes long. It's nothing to really fester over but it does feel very small. Here we see the comatose man experience his first life as king of a castle who then gets sieged. It feels very interesting how they managed to make this feel both like a story driven album that also feels as though it is like a normal album with songs that aren't really related to one another. I gotta say, I really dig this approach. It's very new and exciting for the band to be experimenting a little bit more than usual with their albums.

Next up is Famine Wolf. This song is very interesting but hard to describe without sounding like a broken record. It is heavy and progressive, which are staples to the band's sound, so there is not much to talk about there, so instead I'll talk about the vocals. Tommy's voice is just so great, he is definitely one of the best singers I have heard from any metal band. He sounds so smooth and clean. You can feel his words magnificently and it all ends up being these amazingly performed melodies. Even when he is screaming it feels very smoothly done so I gotta give props to that. Here the comatose man (who from now on I'll just Name Coma) arrives in his second life where was a scavenging wolf in an abandoned city, feasting on the weak but then gets caught and put down. Kind of a dark song, but it's what you kinda expect from this band.

King Redeem / Queen Serene is up next and this is probably the album's most varied track. The first half is very calm and pretty but the second half feels intense and brutal. You can just feel the shift in the two songs perfectly and I love that. It has that immaculate shift in tone that I cannot get enough of. It rises to this awesome sound. It also doesn't feel sudden too, you really do get that anticipation and it is brilliantly done. It is like a punch that was being pulled for so long and as it releases, it feels very powerful. Here we Coma reflect on himself as he is at a crossroads in his decisions. He doesn't know how to feel about himself and his past lives. This is just a great song all around to be honest.

After that is Turn on the Darkness. We get a lot more progressive aspects from the band on this one with some string work on here with some variations of their sound. It is eight minutes of very proggy elements that makes this song feel very at home in the BTBAM catalog of work. I do however have to say that the lack of growls really makes this feel rather soft in my opinion. It doesn't excite, it doesn't have enough teeth, you know? It's a good song, but I feel like it shoots itself in the knee with the lack of any real heaviness besides in musicianship. The story now shows Coma in a void of other comatosed patients who also used the Coma Machine, however have died and lost their spirits. It continues that dark and underlying motif of death in a limbo-like state. A very interesting concept for a story to have.

Next song is The Ectopic Stroll. This is more of the same as the last song but with more of a bouncy feel to it. You can feel a lot more rhythm to the song's riffs and drum patterns. It has a fun melody and it pays homage to the more fun and wacky aspects of Prog rock that I do enjoy. The song shows Coma meeting a god of sorts who decides to help him out on his journey of exploration. Kinda similar to Night Owl in Parallax, perhaps some interconnected lore? Probably just a coincidence though.

Next up is Rapid Calm. This song is practically void of growls and screams which as I mentioned before kinda make these songs not feel very heavy. Well this song is true to its name, it is not their heaviest song, not by a mile. It is very calm, and that is both good and bad. On one hand it is a new and great way of exploring new sounds for the band, but on the other it feels cheap. I want my Between The Buried and Me songs to feel at least a tiny bit more edgy, even their calmer tracks in the past still had that distinct style the band has had for decades. I think this song does have some edge, especially in the story, but even then it does feel rather void of any real sharp attributes. I appreciate the band for trying new stuff but sometimes the experimentation can fall flat. Continuing from the last song, Coma and the godlike being discover that the Coma Machine is breaking down and the velvet room is soon turning white, signifying death. Coma decides to go to a dream-like state and fix this entire conundrum so he can live another day.

Up next is Memory Palace. This may be their most progressively adjacent song ever. With the lack of any real growls, this feels like a homage to the early Prog of the 70s with the more complex yet safely done song structure. This is also the longest song on the album, being 9 minutes long, so we get a lot more densely packed epicness here. Despite it being 9 minutes it feels like a first part of a suite of sorts, and the next two songs on the album are kinda like the second and third parts, sorta making this a Prog epic in a way. I won't consider it to be, but the cards are definitely available. So Coma finds himself lost in thought and dreams. He is dying yet he feels alive in his dreams, so feels almost obligated to live the rest of his days in his mind, away from the burdens of the world, but he does feel like there should be more. A delima sets upon him.

Next track is Option Oblivion and it continues the sound and styles of Memory Palace while being a lot more technical in scope. I can definitely feel the band putting their all into this track to make it sound the best that it can be. Heck it also kinda harkens back to Swim To The Moon a little bit with the lines 'Breathe underwater, swim without limbs' so there's that too. In Coma's delima he decides to stay in the dream world. He gets swept through waters in his mind as he reawakens in a new place.

At the end of it all is Life In Velvet. This reprises the theme of The Coma Machine while giving an epic ending to this album. Even after death and turning into a spirit of dreams, Coma finds happiness in his new state, yet exhausted by the journey he went through to find his new resolve. Likewise, this song feels very celebratory as it ends on a more happy sounding crescendo and melody, ending off with a bang. They clearly wanted to at least make this album feel rewarding and I think this song succeeds in that regard. Not the longest, or complex ending out there, but it is a good way to end this album off.

I will say that this album is definitely mixed for me. The story is great and some of the songs are really excellent, but other parts of it makes me feel very unsure. I will say this is a perfectly fine album and one that can be very fun to go through, so really I think it's more just a matter of what you want out of your metal acts. I recommend it to those who want a tiny bit more softer death metal in their lives. It can also be a pretty good way to introduce someone to this band, so that's a plus too. This is a good album, but not amazing.