OUT OF THE COMA

This album is a very natural sequel to "First Utterance", maintaining all the strengths of Comus's initial effort. Comus are, in general, a very difficult band to listen to - one of the few bands i've ever found genuinely distressing, mostly because the combination of harshness, shrillness and beauty in their vocals and their jagged, abrupt instrumentation are eerily, confusingly and even terrifyingly reminiscent of the thought-patterns and noises that occur in your head when you're actually going crazy.

This visceral, bodily effect is very present in 'Out of the Coma' - not only due to the heavy breathing and aggressive, roaring vocals, but also the tortured wailing of the instruments. Classic Comus. It's equally present in the very vulnerably feminine "The Sacrifice" - eerie harmonies combined with beatiful flute feel on a primal level like the panic of being aware of what a young girl you are as you walk home at two in the morning. Failing to empathise with the fear of the subject and the conciousness of her own weakness is impossible. This track is emotionally as tense as an instrument string, intricate and lightly beautiful. Not one to listen to in a vulnerable mood, although also my favourite track.

"The Return" is a welcome break from the distressing clamour of the first two tracks. Sweet and flowing, it does posess some of the smiling fearfulness of the previous track, but leans more towards melancholy than panic and insanity. The pagan fluting and wailing is broken up by some pleasantly deeper instruments and softer singing, which adds welcome balance. Still there's a sense of tainted beauty that makes this track, in proper Comus style, deeply affecting.

"The Maalgard Suite", explained in the previous track to be the basis of Comus's lost second album, is of poor audio quality due to the age of the cassette it was taken from. This does detract from the track, but not nearly as much as one might expect it to. The nature of Comus's music does much to salvage it from poor recording conditions. Detailing the story of a "beautiful maiden captured by a warlock ogre". The vocals are difficult to make out, but the aggressive crooning of the male vocals and high, lilting, almost screaming female vocals make it reminiscent, in my opinion, of both "The Sacrifice" and "Drip Drip". All the disconcerting harmonies and disturbing instrumentation we've come to expect from Comus are there. Also there from around the nine-minute mark is the strange, inexplicably but definitely "of the forest" beauty they manage to bring to every song, taken over again soon after by male-voiced aggression and panic-inducing instruments and vocals. Rawly, painfully stimulating.

This is an album and band i'd really like to write more about, but the distressing nature of this band's music mean it's not something I can listen to too many times in a row, despite the genuine feeling they inspire being also their main draw. It's that level of genuine response - so genuine it can't be suppressed - that leads me to give it five stars. This is a band that was never popular not because their music is bad, but because it's so good at what it does that it's difficult to listen to. Wrap up in a blanket, arrange some comfort food and then give it an attentive listen.