WAVES OF VISUAL DECAY

Communic surely made a big step forward with their second record. Their compositions are more complex, more thought out and more majestic. The band also sounds a lot less than Nevermore as they did on their debut record even if these influences are still too much present to call this album unique. The production and the artwork are though once again outstanding.

"Under A Luminous Sky" is a great and mysterious introduction to a progressive album but the band's technical thrash riffs kick already in and give the song a fairly interesting drive. The vocals remind of Nevermore but in the higher parts also of King Diamond or Judas Priest. This shows just the great vocal range of the singer and proves me that he could do much better than he actually does by copying the style of other well known singers. The guitar work sounds a little bit like Tool in this track and is quite interesting.

The problem I still have with the band beside the fact that they didn't find their own style and copy too many other artists is that their songs lack of warmth, accessibility and catchiness. They are technically brilliant but heavy to digest and often way too long in my humble opinion. As on the last album, the band convinces when they take a deep breath and put calmer passages in their songs. These are the moments when they sound emotional, authentic and human. I really like the calm and melodic first minutes of the diversified "Frozen Asleep In The Park" or the enjoyable half-ballad "Watching It All Disappear" but the band always decides way too often to return to a mid tempo pace with thrash riffs and Warrel Dane reminiscences.

The calm moments are though way more present on this record as one the first one and the band seems to recognize its talent and skills and they mostly employ them in an adequate way. From that point of view the title track "Waves Of Visual Decay" is the most complete and perfect track the band has ever done and the highlight of this record but one must also mention the quite diversified closer "At Dewy Pride" that mixes in a great way the harder and softer side of a band and would be an ideal choice to represent the sound of the Norwegian group. The last songs sound very promising to me for the band's future since I have not yet listened to their last records but they definitely seem to keep on progressing.

In the end, this record is more human, more emotional and also more diversified than the first album. It's not a masterpiece but the band is on a quite good way to get into the circle of the big progressive metal bands. I begin to open myself to them and appreciate them more than before. I would judge this record as a big step forward for them and consider it as a very good progressive metal record.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on August 24th of the year 2011.