QUIET WORLD

When I originally listened to this album years ago, I absolutely loved it, it sounds like BTBAM but with a more melodic, dramatic focus, with just as many genre changes as albums such as Colors. As time has gone on however, the appeal of creating an album that attempts to do everything has become less and less appealing, and the actual compositions are what I find to be the most important aspects. Unfortunately, this is ultimately where Quiet World falls short, with many of the tracks either feeling bland, or being so ridiculously dramatic that they end up sounding pretty stupid, like a bad Disney song. All the elements of BTBAM can be ofund here, but I personally find that none of it is executed anywhere near as well.

The album starts off with one of its best songs, Mute, one of the 2 songs that I can wholeheartedly enjoy, in this case it's due to the wonderful energy put behind it, being able to effectively blend heavier elements, such as the intense drumming, with a vocal melody strongly reminiscient of Queen, before further settling down into a cool, jazzy section. Overall this song just has a good structure, being on the softer side, but knowing when to become more intense, even though it can feel a bit cheesy and dull during the middle section, there's enough here to be somewhat enjoyable. The Spark of the Archon has been a song that I could never enjoy, I just feel as if nothing about it really stands out, the melodies being incredibly mundane, the vocal patterns being impossible to remember, being really off sounding, even the climactic chorus is a borefest. At least with most of the other tracks here, there was an element of fun or entertaining dramatic parts, but this one just has nothing going for it at all. Passage is definitely a better song, more effectively using the quirky elements of their music style, and having some incredibly fun vocals throughout, although I think that the song also sounds somewhat empty in other parts. Despite this, the song has a really fun sax solo as well, so it's got some merit for sure, along with the more coherent and memorable nature of it, despite the fact that it feels lacking in any kind of real impact, more like an exercise in genre cramming. Your Familiar Face is a fairly simple, yet infectious song that takes on an almost solely big band/jazz sound, only occasionally deviating from this. The one moment here that I do truly love is when everything becomes a bit darker sounding and the vocals begin to sound quite similar to Mike Patton, albeit without the insane vocal range to accompany it. Come Hell Or High Water is the other song that I do find highly enjoyable, containing an incredible melody, sounding like a twisted waltz as we're exploring the mind of the main character of this concept album. This actually reminds me a lot of The Dear Hunter, just with some death metal growls at times, although they sound ok here, unlike the other times they're implemented where it just all feels incredibly unnecessary. The one moment of this song that I cannot stand is where Robert Edens begins singing comically high at what seems like the emotional climax of the song, removing all impact and tone that was being set up and completely derailing everything, I still like this song though, despite this egregious part. Here's where the album just all of a sudden takes a massive nosedive, despite already being a mixed bag at best beforehand, as while Chromatic Lights is a nice little interlude, the 12 minute epic, Chromatic Aberration is a complete mess. While I find it cool how the band attempts to use the music to guide the story along more than lyrics, the song just meanders so much, drifting through so many uninteresting transitions into more parts of the song that just don't work. It has the same issues as Spark Of The Archon, except 20X worse, especially given the fact that this includes so many elements of metalcore that just fall flat. The worst part of this is how heavily the outro relies on these heavier sections that just straight up suck, making everything end not with a bang, but a whimper.

While Quiet World occasionally reveals some charm and decently written musical passages, I find this album to largely not connect with me, most dramatic moments sounding very artificial and flat most of the time, and many attempts at experimentation feeling hackneyed, it's not as interesting or original as one may think to be changing tone every 20 seconds, and there are many bands that do this infinitely better, such as Between The Buied and Me, Mr Bungle and Unexpect. This album just fails to do much other than bore me, although I can't quite rate it 1 star, as there are a couple of songs, or at least parts of them, which have a lot of potential and that I really enjoy, but in any case, I'm not a fan of most of this.

Best songs: Mute, Come Hell or High Water

Weakest songs: The Spark of the Archon, Chromatic Aberration

Verdict: Despite trying to be interesting and fun, the majority of Quiet World does neither of these things to any kind of effect, taking the virtuosity and often quirky nature of prog, but forgetting to include the most vital aspect, good songwriting. There are a couple of decent songs here, but the album is nothing special.