CORE

Is it per-se-fo-ny or is it per-se-fon? Before listening that's all that seemed to be going through my head. But as I played Core that immediately dissipated and was replaced by sheer astonishment in that a little band from Andorra is equal to great progressive bands of our time.

This cd seems to take a lot of influence from many different bands which leads to a problem at first. Usually bands have their own sound and use influences to create their original sound. This band seems more so a compilation of different sounding bands somewhat tweaked and edited to their desire. At one point I found myself going, This is Opeth, isn't it? But of course it is not. Many of the beats, sounds, and melody's seem somewhat familiar to me which also leads to this idea. But if the sounds really are original then it is composed brilliantly and deserves a lot of credit.

The vocal styles are easily differentiated between 3 sections with one person doing black metal vocals, another doing death metal vocals, and finally a women doing soft melodic singing each with small variations. The black metal and death metal vocals go back and forth in a waltz throughout songs creating a beauty not found very often. The female vocals always go in tangent with the flow of the song becoming very soft and docile which at first is nice but is somewhat annoying because it is the only time it appears. Each of the male singers, or just the one guy, also has a lighter mellower voice similar to Opeth and Edge of Sanity.

The cd is composed fairly well with parts accenting each other and every instrument adding to the mood of the current situation as it sways. Though with the addition of the softer parts one cannot help but wonder if they did not know how to transition that part so lets just have it fade out then pick it up again later. This is not a big complaint just one thing that comes up. Also an annoying thing is that it has 3 songs each 23 min long. Now I am not normally against long songs but when you have a transition that is dead silent for 6 seconds and then completely feels like a new song...then it needs to be a new song or maybe part 2.

This gets 4/5 because it could become better and I am extremely excited to see what they come up with. But if it was 5/5 then it would be equal to In a Flesh Aquarium and Imaginary Sonic Scape and it is not.