PRECESSION

'Precession' - Senmuth (5/10)

His obviously musical talent and skill aside, one begins to wonder how many times the same industrial metal sound can be tweaked and recycled, before the composer himself begins to tire of it. With Senmuth's 5th piece of music, the man behind the extensive music this project has produced seems to haved aimed to make a spiritual sequel of his strong debut, 'Cognitive Discord,' in terms of sound and approach. However, while 'Cognitive Discord' was a fresh venture and had quite a few strong tracks under it's belt, 'Precession' feels like a bit of a weak afterthought in it's shadow. Indeed, there are a handful of lively tracks which redeem what would otherwise be a bland and uneventful industrial metal and the addition of some pleasant vocal talents, but it is still only enough to make 'Precession' a mediocre installment in the Senmuth saga.

As a general rule, the music here is very much like the dense, electronic metal from 'Cognitive Discord,' except there is much less of a 'dance' vibe here; the riffs and electronic melodies are less catchy than they were before, although the sound is still as dense and complex. What perhaps makes 'Precession' unique from any of it's predecessors is that throughout the album, Senmuth has enlisted the help of many friends to fulfill different vocal/mixing roles. While a common complaint I had with alot of Senmuth's music before this was that his vocal style deterred from the overall enjoyment rather than adding to the experience, the singers he has brought along for the ride are all very skilled. Once again, we get the operatic soprano of a woman credited as Annie Red Hat, as well as a strong alto woman's voice, and a strong male voice to top off the guest vocalists. While Senmuth's own voice makes it's own contribution, I can easily say that it doesn't compare to the much more professional deliveries of the other singers, and he should likely stick to his skillful composing and instrumentation, or find a new vocal style to work with before singing again.

The highlights of the album would rest on the handful of tracks in which guest vocalists are used; the songwriting in them seems to be more thoughtful and the use of electronics in them is more effective. To top off the album, the work finishes off nicely with a remix of one of the better songs from 'Cognitive Discord,' the first appearance of Annie Red Hat in Senmuth's music, titled (in English) 'Cutting The Last Thread.' This remix is almost entirely electronic in nature, and has done away with practically all of the metal sound in the song, making it strictly an electronica track. With the operatic soprano voice overtop, it gives a very unique sound to the music, and a pleasant way to end 'Precession.'

'Precession' certainly doesn't impress as a whole, but there are a couple of songs here in which Senmuth really demonstrates some keen songwriting and arranging abilties. At the risk of sounding like a knock off of the debut, Senmuth has retrogressed back a year to revisit the sound he once had; perhaps it may have been a wiser choice to keep looking forward.

The usual "Industrial noises" that have been a constant background in the first four Senmuth's works are still present but teir volume is lower so that we can better appreciate the melodies. There are also less percussive sounds and the metal component is now occasionally superseded by the electronic one.

currently the only other review is about the album in its whole, so I will go track by track in order to be complementary to that.

The opening track (In The Shadows), in particular starts electronic with sounds more close to Vangelis than to techno.It's the usual Senmuth just after the singing starts, but it's less chaotic and, I don't want to say melodic, but we can clearly hear a melody without having to extrapolate it from the other sounds as in his prevoius works. This requires less attention to the listener and it's not a bad thing.

"Reinkarnation" alternates the industrial metal to electronic moments, but I have the impression that there's more attention to the sung parts. There's also a good guitar here.

"Limit of Reality" continues in the same vein. There's a dialog between two metal screamers, at least they seem to be two different singers that alternates with a powerful electronic interlude. A very good song with a very nice piano/harp coda. (piano/harp are likely a keyboard of course).

"Sandbeach"'s melody is influenced by traditional russian music in the chords and melody, but the singers have something of John Lydon with PIL.

It fades into "2 Days Up to Dawn" on which I was suspecting that the singer was that Annie Red Hat that we have found on Cognitive Discord. Some Skand21 is credited instead. I still hear traditional folk elements. Should I decide which Senmuth's song propose to a non- prog audience, this would probably be the one. "Lost Purposes" Is prog-metal oriented. The industrial noise is disappeared except for some distorsion. This is probably the first time that a metal guitar is clearly diistinguible in a Senmuth's song. The drumming on the chorus is tipically metal . "The art is impossible" reminds me to Ayreon because of the two singers and a distinctive electric guitar. Of course it's just a remind. There's nothing else that can point in that direction. A spacey coda completes the track.

"Troy" is again very powerful. The female vocalisms have a Greek flavour and looking at the track's title there's obviously a reason for this. The percussions and the guitar describe a state of war and when the percussions slow down is like the end of a battle.

"Caribbean" has percussions in evidence until the keyboard joins, then guitar, then percussion only. This is an almost symphonic instrumental with elements that could make it suitable for a movie soundtrack.

"Forever" is a prog-metal song with a "song" structure. Another "easy" one. The singer seems to be the same of Sandbeach, likely Senmuth himself. The most melodic song of this album. It would have been an excellent closure if it wasn't for the disco-like remix of "Niti". The singer is again Annie Red Hat, as in his debut album. Only, the industrial noises are totally over, and what remains is good electronic suitable to be played by a mainstream radio.

Not yet enough for having 4 stars, but this is currently the best Senmuth's album of the first 5. (only 73 left to review)