DISAPPEAR IN BLUE

And finally, the third album of Nauticus was released after years of work and preparation!

The band lost the singer Jani Ramo in the process (luckily, because he was not good) and they used four different vocalists and a choir in substitution. The production was again taken by the drummer and leader of the band Tuomas Rajala and everything sounds just fine, even better than in their previous effort The Wait.

The style of the band follows the path created by the two previous albums offering another (big) dose of alternative prog metal with avant-garde elements and some experimentations with passages which bring Tool to mind and some Mastodon's Leviathan sounding guitars very appropriated for the nautical ambience that the band tries to imprint to Disappear in Blue.

But sadly, the song writing is a bit irregular throughout the whole album, especially in longer songs like Arrival and Hyeronimus when some disjointed ideas and repetitive passages pass a bill which is too big to overcome. And though the vocal production is much better than the two previous records of the band, they still lack some personality to be really remarkable.

Best tracks: Magma (the typical Nauticus semi-distorted guitars appear here, and the syncopated vocals are the best of the album), Singularity (catchy, beautiful and hypnotic track, maybe Nauticus's best) and Glass Pyramids (gorgeous female vocals and some post-rock influences for another fine song)

Conclusion: despite a pair of very good ideas and some fine songs, Disappear in Blue is too long and too disjointed to be considered excellent. It has remarkable moments like the aforementioned best tracks and the post-rock ambiental and oppressive tunes Desolation and Whale Bones, but the lack of catchier moments, the over dimensioned length and the absence of a true vocalist are problems which are too big to ignore.

Nevertheless, the album has some kind of mysterious charm which makes you desire to submerge in it again. And of course, Disappear in Blue makes me want to hear more from Nauticus, because I know that with a bit of self contention and catchier song writing, they will be able to make an excellent experimental prog metal album in the future.

My rating: ***