NATURAL CAUSES

I'm not within my comfort zone with this Israeli band, but here's a recycling of my magazine review from October 2012. Solstice Coil have been active since 2001 though only two albums have been released; this is the second. They themselves place their music in between Dream Theater and Radiohead, and that correlates pretty well my own reception. This is not exactly (prog)metal but it comes quite close. The guitars roar loudly and the sound wall is thick and electrified. Imagine modern Rush with more keyboards, anxiety and a hurry to make everything fit into 5-6 minute packages. Often the songs start in a disguisingly delicate manner, but with no time at all they turn into more aggressive expression. Even at its most slow the atmosphere is full of tension and restlessness. To me personally this is not a good thing! Simply there's too much of stuff. Just by decreasing some of the loud guitars one could much better enjoy the details of the overall sound.

There's no doubt these guys know how to play. The vocals are not very bad either as they avoid the worst Radiohead-moans. The keyboard arsenal includes electric piano, and if I'm not mistaken also Mellotron appears (unless it's the string quartet that guests on the album). The rhythmic complexity is handled skillfully.

'Replacing People' is a near-ballad, but just like eveything else it suffers from too tight soundscape. To me the whole album seems to have the same depressed mood. I do like some "depressed" music of Porcupine Tree or Anathema or other that kind of "heavy" artists, (not to mention the mighty Van der Graaf Generator, naturally) but this music lacks the needed variety between the songs and the more ambient side of bands like Porcupine Tree. My impression is tiresome, overserious tension, and I really can't stand spending a whole hour with it.

My rating? Again, as I'm emphasizing my subjective reception, two stars will do, even though those who are the real target of this music will surely appreciate it a lot.

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