THIS MORTAL COIL

Come 2003 and Soniq Theater return with a brand new album, titled ''This mortal coil''.This was the second work by Alfred Mueller to include some vocal work, his collaborator Suzann provides voice samples on ''Flashpoint'' and Mueller himself sings in ''Break the frame''.

The material presented in ''This mortal coil'' is slightly better compared to the previous ''The third eye'', but insisting on sampled instrumentation eventually won't bring the awaiting progress.Once more Mueller prooves to be a good composer in the field of Symphonic and Electronic Rock, offering music with a deep sense of melody, a mood for bombastic orchestrations and a touch of Classical Music in the piano parts, but the drumming is unacceptable to say the least plus the guitar still bursts this totally fake aura and the sampled orchestral interludes sound completely thin.The addition of vocals in the aforementioned pair of pieces is definitely welcome, just decent and far from enganging, but every addition of natural sounds, even if this is just a human voice, can do only good to such a digital-dominated style.Stylistically the album is still grounded in the field of Neo/Symphonic Prog with electronic vibes and Mueller's flashy keyboard solos are pretty nice, while his compositions could have sounded quite great if performed by a normal band.The result kind of reminds me of BACKYARDS, ALIMAR or even THE INNER ROAD with ''Minas Tirith'' being the absolute highlight, finally with an acceptable guitar sound and a very bombastic keyboard performance.The rest of the album is ok, but far from trully interesting.

Visit Soniq Theater's website to download the album and display your own thoughts on the project's development from album to album.To my ears Mueller still struggles to come up with a trully recommended release, although part of his ideas is competetive and well-played...2.5 stars.