STORM CORROSION

I had some problems with Heritage and even some with the fantastic Grace for Drowning. I had low expectations for this album. What I can say now for sure is that, one should not decide on this album before spinning it 4 or 5 times, in different moods and even places if possible. Now the question is, is it worth the spins, or your full attention?

This is the duo's approach to psychedelic music, with a lot of complex art influence (the likes of Scott Walker). It's like Mikael Akerfeldt gives Comus, Steven Wilson takes that and adds his signature keyboards, vocals, horror elements and other production qualities. So the product is something I would call Comus' psychedelia without energetic breaks, with complex production, wonderful vocal lines and guitars of Mikael Akerfeldt and classic keyboard skills and vocal harmonies of Steven Wilson.

The approach is minimalistic, the idea is "less is more". Telling more using less notes. That's not something most of the people are used to. There are not much lyrics too. And it's definitely not the type of music when you're in the party mode. But that's not a reason to rate it badly.

I think the people who don't like this album underestimate the intelletual ground this music is based on. This is the music of Steven Wilson and Mikael Akerfeldt. Their success in this industry is not the work of chance, but the work of love, determination and hardworking. They ARE aware that the tempo of this album is low, that it's not an energetic album and these are not the catchiest songs they've written. But haven't they done enough of that energetic music with Porcupine Tree, Opeth, and various other projects? This is music that most mainstream people get nothing out of it. Not that it's nothing really unexpected, but mainstream always expect the very same music. That's the problem in my opinion.

So you may want to give it a good chance. It was worth it for my case. It's evil, it's melancholic, it's cinematic, it's psychedelic. It's not the music we hear everyday. Isn't that a quality for good music?