BLESSED ARE THE BONDS

I knew I was holding something special in my hands right from the start. Several people recommended this album to me for my liking of experimental and alternative music, and seeing that one could order a free copy of the album directly from the band themselves, I would have been a fool not to follow up on this recommendation.

It took some time before I actually received the album, I just moved to England for the time being and the album was delivered to my home address in The Netherlands. It was send over to England, so a few weeks later I had the pleasure of examining this wellcrafted package. The cd comes in a nicely designed digipack with an eye-catching drawing of owls as artwork. It is actually rather simple in that respect, yet rather appealing as well! The CD came with a free fold-out poster, and inside of the digipack the booklet features nicely designed lyrics, which differ in lay-out from page to page, which gives the whole booklet a rather ambitious and arty feel to it.

So the package is approved, on to the music then, shall we?

Before I ordered the album, the only thing I knew about their music was the fact that they were being categorised as experimental metal, but that this term did not do their music right. Well, that sounds interesting, doesn't it? Just way too many influences I was told. So I checked their MySpace.com page out and listened to the song The Tragedy and was mesmerised! This piece of music could be considered to be a rock attempt at a classical music piece, literally seen! Compositionwise the song progresses over its 10-minute length and keeps surprising the listener. Starting off with calmness and ending with a more rockysound, though never really rocking out... That's saved for later on on the album!

Yes, the music is varied, that much is true. It ranges from classical to folk to a trash/hardcore kind of metal to ambience 'music'. But what's most surprising is the seemingly effortless bland of these very different styles of music. The album comprises 60 minutes worth of music, spand over 8 tracks, which form a continuous flow of music. One big eponimous masterpiece.

The Pax Cecilia: Folk instruments breaking distorted walls of guitars, waves of water played over synthesized patterns, piano chords chiming as the drummer plays a surprising beat, vocals telling poem- like lyrics in a highly dramatic and original way, ranging from spoken or even whispered words to screaming in rage, to oozing lullabies. A little known masterpiece of truly progressive music worth of a wider audience.

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