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Vola - Witness CD (album) cover

WITNESS

Vola

 

Progressive Metal

3.76 | 69 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

lukretio
3 stars There were big expectations surrounding VOLA's third full-length album earlier this year. The Danish alternative / prog rockers have been growing in popularity in prog circles since their 2015 debut Inmazes, with their 2018 follow-up Applause of a Distant Crowd receiving an even stronger response in the specialized press and webzines. The new LP is a solid effort that further curates VOLA's sound, gently pushing it into more modern progressive djent metal relative to its predecessor, without failing to retain a huge spotlight on melody and accessibility. Seen in light of the anticipation surrounding the album, Witness is however somewhat underwhelming, leaving the marked impression that the band has played it excessively safe on this album, preferring to proceed with comfortable baby steps instead of daring to take giant leaps forward.

Witness is a record built to please the earbuds. It's a highly vocal-centric album, with huge vocal melodies that are catchy and emotional. Lead vocalist Asger Mygind's mellifluous singing is perfectly executed, halfway between falsetto and warm tenor, and with the right amount of vocal effects added to the production to give an electronic and futuristic feel to his voice ("Head Mounted Sideways"). The instrumental background is carefully arranged to exalt the vocal melodies. The guitars play a strongly rhythmic function, with plenty of palm-muted, down-tuned chugs that complement the intricate and hypnotizing grooves of bassist Nicolai Mogensen and drummer Adam Janzi. Meanwhile, Martin Werner keeps his synthesizers busy to add subtle electronic overtones to the songs, again giving the music a strongly modernist vibe.

There are plenty of references to many other contemporary rock and metal acts. The recent work of bands like Leprous, Tesseract, Haken, Agent Fresco, Caligula's Horse, and Voyager all provide suitable reference points for the overall sound of the album, carefully balanced between djenty aggression and highly accessible melodies. Elsewhere, the influence of Porcupine Tree surfaces on songs like "Freak", especially in the gorgeous, carefully arranged backing vocals harmonies. Countrymen Mew are another influence when it comes to the smooth vocal melodies. "Stone Leader Falling Down" pushes on the accelerator introducing some quasi-growls, for what is probably the heaviest piece of the LP. Meanwhile, "These Black Claws" flirts with hip hop and rap music and features a guest spot by Dutch hip hop duo Shahmen. This is perhaps the most daring episode of the whole album. Considering that metal bands have been experimenting with rap and hip hop for at least two decades now, this gives a good measure of how few boundaries this album actually pushes.

This is eventually my main gripe with Witness. I cannot shake off the impression that everything here is being played in the safest possible way, taking as few risks as possible and trying to please as many fans as possible. There's nothing wrong with trying to increase one's fanbase, of course. But I get slightly uncomfortable when I sense that this was the main driving strategy behind the songwriting. Because almost inevitably this implies a sacrifice in terms of depth and originality. Alas, Witness is no exception and it is hard to get past a feel of vague déjà-vu as one goes through the 44 minutes of the album. Witness sounds exactly as you'd expect a near-perfect progressive djent metal to sound. This is, in a sentence, the main strength and main weakness of the record.

lukretio | 3/5 |

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