Comus

Touted as noise metal this collaboration between members of Enslaved, Fe-Mail and Emmerhoff starts off with a slow, haunting track with a very slow developing metal riff. Turn-Away has a certain epic feel about it however there's something truly lacking, it doesn't have the confidence of Enslaved and lacks any true power, nevertheless it's still quite enjoyable for what it is. The vocals are incredible, half death half black they really redeem the song much the same way as the lovely sounding guitars. The repetitive riffs and whispering really does build the song up increasing intensity with each chord. The song however remains quite simple despite all the input and I feel this could be it's downfall. While I'm not a fan of the overproduced certain metal albums like this could certainly do with a lot more production, by the end of the song however this is fully utilised and it turns out to be quite a powerful opener, by no means perfect, but certainly powerful.

Most metal fans will find this boring, but some doom metal fans will approve of the slow tempo, personally I find this release very refreshing as it's something I've certainly never heard before. The opening track however is very reminiscent of parts of Goblin's masterpiece Suspiria. The second track The Silence is unfortunately not silent however false advertising aside it is a lot worse than the first. Tinny badly recorded drums and an overload of noise music with an uninspirational riff makes the track seem incredibly disjointed, noise fans will however probably like this track the best. It half redeems itself towards the middle of the song, an early climax proves itself to be more intense than any moment in the first song. And some lovely guitars complement the clean whispered vocals after the climax. Some nice, if unoriginal riffs start filling the song and it's incredibly satisfying, the harsh vocals are about as grim and frostbitten as you can get. However everytime you get the metal elements you will get the strong urge to turn it off and go listen to enslaved instead.

Metalheads will eventually get incredibly frustrated feeling it needs to be a lot heavier. Make No Mistake is aptly titled, we'll certainly not make the mistake of thinking this is another enslaved album... however hard it tries. The song includes some of the fastests passages in the album and it is quite refreshing after the rather slow start, it's also quite heavy while never getting truly to black metal standards. The drums start to really grate at points by now and I just can't see why, enslaved's drum work is usually some of the best out there. Make no mistake is one of the more all out metal songs on the album, however it's not entirely free from the noise element, always working overtime in the background. All that being said the crescendo is incredibly satisfying.

I'm reviewing this on my second listen for various reasons, while a lot of metal of this sort takes awhile to get into, once I did get properly into it I would be unfairly biased. Reviewing such albums while they are still fresh in your mind is generally the best way. Endless Roads follows the pattern used by the early tracks of a slow building song working on quite repetitive patterns. The vocals are some of the best I've heard in awhile and it is a huge strongpoint to the album. Of course if you don't like harsh vocals, I would advise you to stay away. Endless roads is very representitive of the album, slow building but eventually satisfying. Parts of me would call this album incredibly fresh but other parts would say I've heard it all before, yet it still manages to remain incredibly intense and evoke feelings of great discomfort at times.

The guitarist in me knows it's a very simple riff but it also feels that the intro to Breach is amazing, the guitars sound sharp and it's just a lovely sound. All deviations are appropriate and welcome and the atmosphere built around them is outstanding, certainly a highpoint to the album. A lot of opinions on Travel Now Journey Infinetly as a whole have tended to feel that it can be boring at times, this is something I truly cannot agree with, even during the slow building noise bits I've never been bored, there's always something new and that is also quite a big plus to the album. Again the vocals shine and the black metal fan in me rejoices.

The title track sets itself up well and provides an appropriately strong end to the album. The female vocals are a truly great addition, while used simply as an instruments they provide huge contrast to the harsh metal vocals and add a strong element of unmistakable beauty to the song. By the last few minutes the whole album as a whole has had a profound effect on my mental state, and I'm beginning to feel very loopy. The strength of the music is unmistakably rewarding and the score should reflect that. I will be hard pressed to give this anything over 7, while that might not sound too high my system of rating is quite a bit different to others. A standard good album will be getting on average about a 5-6. Anything over 5-6 every point is worth quite a lot. And the albums I have reviewed so far, that given any other standard would be getting 9.5-10/10 reflect that.

Solid album, has some obvious drawbacks, I'd rather listen to Enslaved, but despite all this, it's incredibly deserving of...

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