WAVES OF VISUAL DECAY

Same again

Just a year on from their debut "Conspiracy in mind", and Communic returned in 2006 with a set of seven more lengthy numbers. With an unchanged line up, the Norwegians once again decamped to Denmark for the recording sessions. The result is an album which builds on the ground broken by their debut, while remaining very much in the same mould. The very basic line up of guitar, vocals, bass and drums indicates once again that we should not expect a great diversity of sound, and that expectation proves correct.

The order of the day is metal, with heavy guitar riffs over a powerhouse backing. The vocal arrangements are often complex, perhaps at times unnecessarily so. On the opening 8½ minute "Under a Luminous Sky" for example, we are presented with three or four different vocal styles in as many minutes. While the music twists and turns through varying but similar tunes, I hesitate to describe it as progressive. In some ways, like with so many metal bands, the album flatters to deceive, the succession of slightly varied riffs disguising an underlying sameness.

As with the debut, it is on the slightly slower but equally powerful tracks such as "Frozen asleep in the park" that the vocal prowess of the band comes to the fore, and with it delivers the pick of the songs. "Fooled by the serpent" is another song with impressive vocals, the arrangement including some welcome lighter moments and some all too rare lead guitar soloing. The title track is the pinnacle of the album, as it contains the strongest melodies and is more genuine diversity than its peers. I would recommend the track to anyone looking for a first impression of the band.

Apart from a very brief possibility, I am unable to detect any keyboards being used this time. They seemed to appear unaccredited on the debut.

The overall result is a fine album which for me suffers from a sense of sameness. That sameness is both in respect of the tracks gathered here, and with the previous album. There is no doubt that the band have talents both in the creation and the performance of the music. It is good to see that they have ambitions when it comes to the arrangements, I only wish those ambitions could be extended to a bit more diversity of sound. Apart from that grumble, this is a fine metal album.

The album concludes with two demos of tracks which appeared on the first album. The versions here are clearly well advanced in their preparation, but their presence here seems somewhat superfluous.

Wooooooa!Even after almost 5 years since this album was released,each time when I made an audition of it,I've got the same reaction!This album kicks ass!It's simply OUTSTANDING! COMMUNIC are,definitelly,the European answer to NEVERMORE-no doubt about it!No matter how hard we try to find other elements in the Norwegian's music,it's more than obvious that they are 200 % heavyly influenced by NEVERMORE!The whole structure of the songs,the drumming double pedal madness and especially the vocalist's organ-COMMUNIC ARE NEVERMORE'S CLONE!And ,what's more important-they are not at all less good thet their models!I even think that on some aspects-the dramatism of the interpretation and the soft presence of the keyboards-are making COMMUNIC's music more deep and profound!Of course,WARREL DANE has an unique voice,but Oddleif's one is suprbe too!This man can transmit unbelieveble emotions and great feeling thru his superbe voice-and this is a major ace in COMMUNIC'S advantage!Not even a weak song-all the album is monolyth-strong as steel-but there are too many mid-tempo songs in my humble oppinion!And there is another attractive element in COOMUNIC's music-the fact that there are long instrumental passages- just look at the timming of each track!Trully impressive the maturity of the guys and their musical vision!I hope in the future they will find a more personal and particular identity in the music-because they are trully to influenced my NEVERMORE under too many aspects!BUT I LIKE THAT!!!!!The production is sensational-top indeed,with a powerful and mazing strength and heaviness!Great artwork too!I think after the minblowing debut album-this second one-is even stronger!Strong 4 stars for a magnificent thrash power progressive album!

"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.

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.

3.5 stars really

Communic is a great norwegian progressive/power metal band with quite a solid career so far. Waves of visual decay is their second release from 2006 issued by Nuclear Blast. Well, this is pretty solid album, with tight and inventive musicianship, Communic has only 3 memebers but thy done a fantastic job here. 7 pieces , each one quite long with twists and breaks, tempo changes and all ingredients to be a great power/progressive metal album. The instrumental parts are quite long and plenty of them, showing how strong musicns they are. Under a Luminous Sky, the opening track or the title track are simply great, Communic offering something of a real intrest in such genre. The album overall maybe is to raw for some prog metal fans, but has lots of melodic guitar lines. This is a nice album with great art work and even the lyrics are pretty much more then ok.3.5 stars to this one, my fav Communic album and maybe their best so far.