SUICIETY

I was kindly asked by Nikitas Kissonas to listen to this album and to write a review about it. He is the composer and guitarist in this album from the project called METHEXIS (I mean, it is not really a band, but it is more a solo project by Nikitas Kissonas, with collaborations from other musicians). This is the second album from the METHEXIS project. The first album, titled "The Fall of Bliss" from 2011 (for which I also wrote a review about it some years ago), has Kissonas playing all the instruments (and also doing all the vocals), except the drums (which were played by a drummer). In this second album, Kissonas has other very good musicians playing with him, and it seems that this album was even a more ambitious task.

This "Suiciety" album is a concept album which has as central ideas the influences of the outside world (from society, that is, family, friends, school, institutions, etc.) against the inside world and psychological resources of the individual persons. Kissonas`s opinion (as long as I could understand it from reading the lyrics and the explanation of the concept of the album in his Bandcamp web page) is that the influences of the "modern civilized world" are really against the healthy psychological development of the individuals. While I agree with him in some of these ideas, I really think that the individual person has to have some optimism to live in this world against the possible bad influences from society. The concept of this album is, in my opinion, somewhat influenced by the concepts of Roger Waters`s for PINK FLOYD`s "The Wall" album (not one of my favourites) and film (a very good film...but not one that I could want to watch again) . But, at least Kissonas really composed very good music in most parts for this album. The lyrical concept could seem pessimistic in some places, but the music acts as a contrast against that pessimism in some places. In fact, the best songs in this album for my taste are the optimistic "Prey`s Prayer" (an instrumental piece of music with very good guitars by Kissonas and very good keyboard parts by Linus Kåse) and "Sunlight" (with lyrics about having some faith in life). I really don`t think that all the influences from society are "suIcidal" or "bad" for all the persons. Life is hard, yes, but not totally "bad" or "tragic", in my opinion. Anyway, it is valid to express in words and music all the ideas that the artists have...even if the reviewers don`t think in the same way.

The recording and mixing of this album is very good. There are some very good production ideas, and I think that the making of this album was really a hard work. I think that having several other musicians really helped Kissonas to develop the musical ideas better (he credits the other musicians for additional musical arrangements). The singer Joe Payne really sang very well, sometimes singing in a "dramatic" way, but his voice sounds very well in general.

As a whole this album musically is very good...even if I don`t agree very much with the concept.