THE MIRROR WORLD DIMENSION

Wanting to check out lesser known progressive metal bands, I ran across Cirrha Niva, a band from the Netherlands. Their debut, The Mirror World Dimension, I found quite pleasing. The compositions deliver, and the sound is up my alley- hard-hitting but not messy. The drums are not overpowering, the guitars are not swamped in distortion, and the band isn't flawlessly tight- each musician stands out on his own. This may displease certain modern metal purists, but I much prefer such a sound. Yet the music far outshines the vocals; I would go so far as to say the vocals mar otherwise excellent music.

"Redemption Denied" Muffled guitar provides the flow underneath a barrage of power chords. Multiple vocal styles are present. One is an exaggerated boisterous tone that is easily the worst. Another is a medium-range vocal that sounds a bit too whiny and wavering for my tastes. Yet another is what seems to be a gorgeous female vocal- would that the band had used this singing method more often.

"Kamapau 'a'" This ninety-six second track has windy and mechanical noises, but surrounds an grandiose synthesizer melody.

"Ever" Flowing directly from the previous track, the second longest work on the album has some excellent moments musically, and the vocals are a bit more restrained and focused. This is ultimately a composition that validates this band's presence on a progressive rock website (with respect to this particular album). It has made me eager to hear their future endeavors.

"Weaveworld" Here is a more lackluster composition, but it is well-performed. The guitar maintains a good tone, and I quite like the "loose" feel of the drums.

"The Johari Frame" The second of two brief tracks, this consists of light synthesizer and an utterly cheesy spoken vocal (deep and resonant, like the narration of a B-science fiction flick).

"Time Juggler" Detuned guitar lead over an interesting composition that changes rhythm and tempo starts this. While stripped down in terms of instrumentation (relative to the other songs here), this is one of the more complex arrangements, but also has one of the most awful vocal performances.

"Obscured" Two guitars- one muffled and one shimmering and clear- weave under that deep, inflated vocal. Speaking of the vocals, they are also awful here- almost nauseatingly so. The rhythm guitar generally stays in chug mode for the duration of the piece, but during a quieter moment of bright guitar, the feminine vocalist makes a terse reappearance.