COMA GHOSTS

My expectations for this album weren't that big, I expected some rehearsed ideas from Dream Theater and Opeth. To my surprise, the album doesn't yell at you Dream Theater and Opeth(Well, sometimes it yells Opeth). I find the guitars very similar to the Opeth-style and tones, that's kind of scary. They're very good though, I just wish they don't remind me Opeth so much sometimes. Actually the drums feel pretty similar to Opeth's early recordings such as "Still Life" too, but it has longer sentences and bridges here and there that remind me a bit of Portnoy when he was in Dream Theater. The lovely vocals are their strongest element to bring orginality to the overall experience. I feel good about the growls, as they're not used every now and then. But more importantly, for me, the most beautiful moments of the album lie on her flute. I wish there were flute in every song actually. They are metal, so it doesn't feel like a Jethro Tull rip-off when the music is lead by flute. I believe this kind of differences will bring a more original plate to the table. The rhythm instrument on "Pavement Canvas" is pretty cool too. But I believe the flutes are the strongest instrument of the whole journey. The keyboards on the very beginning of the song "Crib" is another nice factor to make it more prog. "Undercoat" is such an Opeth bridge. "Swimming Through Deserts" bring the Opeth song "Harvest" to the mind. It's pretty sad that these two are in a row so the listener is easily reminded of Opeth. For me the most beautiful moment on the whole album is the lovely flute bridge on the last song, starting on the 7th minute. The 16 minute epic song "Shuteye Wanderer" is my personal favourite.

The production is much more ahead of their EP, and that is a great factor. Each instrument can be heard easily. The compositions and the lyrics work together just fine. My biggest complaint on the album is the lack of original ideas. The way to overcome this is to listen to a lot of different music. There are a lot of styles of prog and jazz. Every music style has some to add to music of any band. Listening is the key for every musician to go beyond his/herself (as Steven Wilson teaches). The most of the prog metal bands need so much to overcome the repetitiveness. To come back to the situation with Effloresce, it's not that bad. They make some neat music. The interesting thing for me is, why they avoid their nation's very inspiring artistic peak, called Krautrock? Hope the band members don't think Krautrock as just the hippie stuff. I hope they'll be a big thing at least in the German music industry. And Germany sure needs another band to be popular around the world than Rammstein(I'm kind of a hater of that band). I'm not in the position to say that Effloresce's music is just rehearsed ideas from some other prog metal bands. But Opeth is obviously a big inspiration for them. I strongly believe that they make their music with every part of their love and they try to bring their personalities in the music. But in my humble opinion, they will need a wider pallette of inspiration in the very near future.

I wish good luck with Effloresce's musical journey, as they've just begun. If nothing goes wrong with the financial situation and if the passion of the band members never ends, I think we have a chance to witness a new Europe band to become popular around the world. This is a solid debut from a band that should have to say much more. I think they should never be afraid of experimenting and discovering new styles, and the door of artistic success will be opened wide for them.

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