Review Summary: Over and over again we replicate excitement.
The frantic duo from Norway went through a line-up change in the time between this and previous LP, as the original drummer Aleksander Kostopoulos was replaced with Goran Johansen, but the core of their sound mostly remained intact with one notable exception. In my review for Pil and Bue’s “Forget the Past, Let’s Worry about the Future” I mentioned that the guys are toying the line between rock and metal with the guitar riffs being heavy and thunderous and the drums having that particular clanging tone to them. The line was not crossed however, as the bottom-line heaviness was contrasted by melodic soaring vocals and overall polished sound.
Well, in my opinion, this time the duo takes a step beyond that line with an even clearer focus on the heaviness. The opener “Rube Goldberg Machine” treads more carefully with comparatively reserved guitar sound and more prominent softer sections, but most of the tracks that follow engage in more direct metal assault. Both “Everyone’ Just A Kid” and “Select 2 players” feature almost Sabbathical riffs, and the drumming also reminisces Bill Ward especially during the more unhinged moments. Petter Carlsen changes his approach to singing a bit, adopting a more sneering and venomous attitude to suit the music. That change allows me to finally draw a clear parallel between him and a more famous singer: in his most sneering moments Carlsen clearly reminds me of Claudio Sanchez, so you might also get some Coheed and Cambria vibes from this record. The band normally reserves the most exciting and heavy moments for the end of the songs, like the drums totally running amok during the last minute of “True Disaster” with Carlsen screeching “laying loooow!” over them. In a similar fashion, the drums take the reins during “Select 2 Players,” especially during its closing section when it seems like there’s some sort of an argument or a tug-of-war going on between the alternating guitar outbursts and drum rolls.
I am normally more than happy when a band takes a heavier turn, but in this particular case there are a couple of caveats. For one thing, heaviness here comes at the expense of diversity, as the band seems to adapt an increasingly formulaic approach to songwriting. Most of the songs follow the standard verse-chorus-verse structure and simple alternation between heavy and soft parts with the heaviest sections normally reserved for the last minute of the song (IDK if I can call them breakdowns). The last two tracks don’t follow that rule with “Resonator” applying some more melodic solo guitar licks on top of beefy rhythms, while the title track is mostly structureless guitar ambient with a rather long heavy section along the way which sounds great but feels like it was just duct-taped somewhere in the middle. The second issue is that Carlsen’s vocals, while consistently great, become overwhelming on this album. On the previous record the instruments were given room to breathe and time to spread out, especially on the longer tracks where sometimes the vocals wouldn’t start until the song reached the four-minute mark. This time, the guy just keeps singing, sometimes in places where a song could do perfectly without a few more lines of lyrics squeezed in.
So, it seems like the band already released their own “Train of Thought” early in the game. I am torn apart a bit about this album, because I like the whole approach “what if Circa Survive got inspired by Black Sabbath,” and heaviness here still retains that playful, sparkling nature. The songwriting was stronger and more varied on the previous album, but this one is still a fun listen and the band’s unique features are still in place.
