SUSPENDED ANIMATION DREAMS

1. Opeth-like guitar passage, then smoothly jazzy Pekka Pohjola, vocal harmonies and different kind of instruments - so what we can expect for this album could be gentle retro prog and atmospheric (metal?).

2. Mild metal comes to picture with mild death metal vocals, and for example with modest violin the mildness maybe makes the song very harmonic and the moods can change freely.

3. Catchy weird heavy rock at the start(for example the beginning with only rhythmic and melodic singing like the briskness of "digging myself"), then heavier and more airy dresses, but the same concept of flowing. Reminds me of those common progressive rock oriented band in the clubs that wants to entertain everyone. Well, instrumental parts can be quite soft here, but the overall is a piece of art that has fairly enough different moods and for example the great piano and oriental feeling (including violin) at the end of the song makes it special and my favourite.

4. Kind of A Blur is like symphonic pop, instrumental movies fanfare music. Nice melodies and celebrating choir at the end. Says nothing to me.

5. A ridiculous heavy rock imitation right from the beginning, at least the sounds are rather awful, and somewhere it sounds.. gothic "death" rock, well I take Babylon Whores as representing the genre. But again, there's much more (basic things I've described earlier here) in this song. Piano reminds me even of Supertramp (and the symphonic pop in the bigger art concept). Song includes also some happy pop choirs in and the title "The Rock N' Roll Preacher" describes well the thing I see here. Though the song is not rock and roll. There's also some more ambient part with weird sounds, and right after that at seven minutes there's the real avant-gardism that I like much and actually haven't heard much like this: a bit funky soft sax still with simple drum rhythm and death metal vocals (reminding me of rap) in a layerly atmospheric symphonic pop form. And right in the middle, there comes a peculiar guitar solo, melody with very odd pitches and sounds reminding me of surf rock. THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO HEAR.

6. The "symphonic pop" continues, but starts to sound folk metal, then it becomes to meander always without a warning: stronger epical melody, and the heaviness reaches its top when I hear the first double bass drumming. More traditional death metal stops or turns to violin and drum oriented and almost carnivalic. There's also more landscape painting, and all in between you can imagine of basic avant-garde metal band. This song is very good and when it's maybe the most diverse here this far, I think it's also the most harmonic.

7. First almost approaching to math metal, then slower atmospheric metal with female, choir (nice a bit odd harmonies!) and male vocals. At this point, at the latest, the band shows to be eclectic, and that's what makes it special. This is a long song and for example the choir comes again with nice and weird harmonic melodies and the thing is growing big, violin in the final. In the end, there's also quite fast space rock combined to melodic heavy metal, or that's the partition I get, thought the total is maybe more music like eg Amorphis (well, there's much more, and unfortunately these rhythms and melodies (here and before) are very usual even for the kinds of Opeth)

8. As a pop, this is great. Female singer a bit like Dido, very gentle and with soul, and this is very atmospheric piece, and this is progressive rock, mostly instrumental. Conclusion for the album. I like the last moments where I hear something like people counting by shouting.

I would like to give this album even four stars and I was just giving two when I realized it would be bad thing for "Six Strings to Cover Fear" and other great things here, or actually, the concept and, well, strangeness of for example pop things. Weird, haha.

Share this SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to progressive
• Report this review (#182302)
• Buy SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE music online with PA partners
• Show all SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE MP3/Stream
• Go to SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Suspended Animation Dreams page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE related discussions