Review Summary: Darker and edgier
Votum are a band that never had it easy. Hailing from Poland and playing sombre atmospheric brand of progressive metal with little technicality, they instantly got compared to the internationally successful countrymates Riverside. They still haven't been quite been able to shake off this comparison even despite the fact that from Polish bands inspired by them they have been the most successful.
For me Votum have always been a very consistent band quality wise. I enjoyed all their albums to some extent, but none managed to blow me away. There are still many atmoprog bands that simply do this style of music better, such as Porcupine Tree, Katatonia, Arcane, Wolverine or Anathema.
This album signifies a new direction since the guitarist Aleksander Salamonik and the singer Maciej Kosiński left the band after recording the latest studio album and got replaced by Piotr Lniany and Bartosz Sobieraj respectively.
Sobieraj is an interesting new vocalist since his style is more grungey and raspy compared to Kosiński's rather mellow tone.
With new members the sound is much darker and heavier as you would judge by the dark cover with weird geometric shape thing on dark scenery. While Votum have always walked the line between progressive rock and metal, there are barely any rock elements on this. This is just straight up metal. Despite the heavier and more dense sound in general, there are no tracks with harsh vocals even though all band's previous albums contained one. Almost all tracks are in slower to mid tempo with only a handful of faster moments. Song structure wise, most songs are closer to post-metal than prog metal bands due to frequent use of crescendos. The atmosphere is mainly built up by solid keyboard work that never sounds cheesy.
It is also worth noting that despite being the band's second longest album, there are no tracks above 7 minutes in length so they don't feel like dragging out.
The first 3 tracks all follow a very similar structure. Apart from "Spiral", all start with heavy introductions before calming down and then transition into explosive main chorus. "Spiral" is my favourite of the three because of its pre-chorus around the 2 minute mark so the real chorus is really hard-hitting. These tracks really utilise the new vocalist's abilities. His voice really contains more personality compared to old one who sounded like weaker Mariusz Duda.
Other album highlights include "Prometheus" with its soft piano intro which transits really well into another very effective build up and the explosive guitar solo on 5 minute mark before repeating its main chorus again and "Vertical", personal favourite song on the album, the crescendo on this track is really powerful, especially the final one 4 and a half minutes in. It also contains the best vocal performance on the album.
Unfortunately, there are some weaker tracks. "Simulacra" and "Horizontal" feel a bit flat and while there are some solid guitar riffs, the tracks repeat the same old structure without adding anything new and don't feel quite as fresh. Neither of the tracks get really interesting until the last 2 minutes where we get some slight change.
"Blackened Tree" and "Last Word" are the shortest and simplest tracks on the album. Both are piano driven ballads with first one containing solid gradation. They work well as interlude and closer respectively, but feel too basic on their own.
Still, I think this might be the band's best album to date despite slightly formulaic songwriting. I was really split between 3 1/2 and 4 star rating, but because they managed to evolve while keeping their signature sound elements, I'm giving it 4 stars.
P.S. What the hell is ktonik is supposed to mean? I know it's a made up word, so I guess it's some kind of abbreviation, but the weird title stylisation with colons was really unnecessary.
