AVOID THE LIGHT

This is certainly a proposal for the ears of those who are willing to go further from the pre-established musical boundaries in order to discover a brand new adventurous world of elaborated passages and sequences not conceived for the regular listener. The German band delivers through "Avoid The Light" a quite remarkable second effort to underline even more what they compromised to achieve on their debut album and to me, they just hit the bull's-eye.

When it comes to musical evolution and development within "Avoid The Light", the musicianship truly sets off in a perfectly timed togetherness, collapsing all instruments in an almost circular transition that floats around over and over again until the syncopated notes out of the thundering drums or crunchy guitars break into scene. I must say that from day one of spinning this record I have created this strange sense of detachment whenever I feel like running out of this world.

Perhaps the album may appear to be derivative and hollow at certain points but the enjoyment of these minimalistic details is what makes the listening more pleasant and intriguing at the same time. The main instrumental section within the album goes from "Apparitions" through "I Know You, Stanley Milgram!" where four enigmatic tracks describe a space full of erratic sensations through heavy riffs and empowering arrangements. Right after that, "The Nearing Grave" carries on almost in a more passive mood along soft lyrics in between that blend suitably perfect with the background music.

And so, "Sundown Highway" represents the closing section of this musical experience brought to us by LONG DISTANCE CALLING. This track is a keeper indeed, maybe to me the most elaborated and condensed piece out of the entire record. There is a certain slant towards a more progressive influence without leaving out the pure and unique essence of the band as it transcends directly to the base of basic Progressive Metal but surprisingly how, it closes down so calmly that it gets to confuse the listener a little bit.

LONG DISTANCE CALLING shows definitely a breakthrough within the genre by risking and proposing new ways of listening to music in spite of the unavoidable comparisons. This German band has been to me one of the best discoveries on what's been running out of the current year.