WAVES OF VISUAL DECAY

"Waves of Visual Decay" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Norwegian metal act Communic. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in May 2006. The "regular" version of the album contains seven tracks. The limited edition comes with two bonus tracks. Both tracks are also featured in this version on the band´s 2004 "Conspiracy in Mind" demo and also appeared in re-recorded version on the 2005 "Conspiracy in Mind" full-length studio album. "Waves of Visual Decay" was produced by prolific Danish producer/musician Jacob Hansen.

The music on the album is semi-progressive thrashy power metal and just as the case was on the debut album a comparison to Nevermore is not that far off the mark. lead vocalist/guitarist Oddleif Stensland has a voice and a singing style that is so similar to the voice and singing style of Warrel Dane ( Nevermore, Sancturary) that it´s impossible not to notice it and mention it. There are moments on this album that sounds unmistakably like Nevermore (albeit without the outstanding guitar playing by Jeff Loomis) and I´m a bit biased if I think that´s a strength or a weakness. Communic generally has a more epic progressive style that sets them apart from Nevermore, but there are generally more similarities than differences.

The seven tracks on the 57:54 minutes long album are all between 6 and 9 minutes long and all feature hook laden choruses, heavy thrashy/power metal riffing, occasional keyboard backing, and those paatos filled powerful clean vocals by Oddleif Stensland. While I at times could have wished for a more raw and stripped down approach, it´s to mye ears still a winning formula. All tracks on "Waves of Visual Decay" are quality compositions, the playing is impeccable, and with a powerful sound production to boot, this album screams quality all the way through.

One of my complaints about the debut album was that the songwriting was a bit formulaic and vers/chorus based, and that´s unfortunately also true on "Waves of Visual Decay". Vers/chorus based songwriting isn´t always an issue, but as both the vers and the chorus sections are as long as they are on this album, it tends to get a bit repetitive when the band repeat themselves for the third time, but that´s my only complaint about the album and of course this is also an aquired taste. If Communic could "cut a bit of the fat" they would probably be a bit more appealing though. Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.