EXISTENCE

The sticker on the front of my CD says this album is a "Masterpiece of progressive emotional metal" for fans of Opeth, PoS, Porcupine Tree and Anathema. The words "progressive metal" I can go with, the words "masterpiece" and "emotional" I will have to take some issue with. These guys are very good musicians who have come up with plenty of nice moments but I have to say my eyes have glazed over long before the 78 minute length has been exhausted. They clearly are PoS devotees, sounding like a tribute band in places. But they do not have enough good material to sustain the punishing length and it becomes very clear this is no "Remedy Lane." And while the band nearly has the chops of PoS, the vocalist is no Daniel G and that hurts. Love him or hate him, Daniel's incredible vocals are part of what makes PoS and Dark Suns lacks that. Their vocals are perfectly pleasant but they are rather tentative and only average. They are straight (non-growl) vocals for those who are wondering about that. Overall the album has a somewhat cold and unemotional feel to me which is not necessarily bad but I find it ironic that they use the word "emotional" to describe their sound. The music is ambitious but the sound is detached to me.

Let's look to the positive. The highlight of the album is the sequence of "Daydream" into "Anemone." It starts with gentle solo piano which is a nice breather from the heavy majority. Soon some clean guitar chords are picked with some gentle keys behind. Half way through some vocal whispers. Drums and bass come in and piano returns for a nice mellow rock section and a good electric solo. Nice stuff. It bleeds into "Anemone" which starts like a PoS/PT cross but soon enters great sections of gut heavy rock that is choppy and dramatic, with soaring changes all over. It continues to build paying demanding constant attention. Spine tingling! On the down side, other tracks just get bogged down in sameness, crying out to the producer to sneak into the studio after dark for an edit job. Sadly, it never happened and you will be able to complete your college thesis in just 4 spins of this CD.

This is a good metal album that I'd recommend to PoS fans. I'm just saying that before they unleash another 78 minute album, I'd suggest they shoot for putting together an awesome 48 minute album. Comes with a very thick lyric booklet that also looks just like a PoS booklet.