Sole Remedy

Apoptosis

Written by: PP on 05/12/2010 04:57:47

One of the newer prog metal bands from Finland are Sole Remedy, who recently released a new album called "Apoptosis", a painful, saddened concept album that contains all the elements required for, to quote Borat, great success, but unfortunately in the wrong order. The music itself, and in particular the musicianship and performance of it, is exceptional all around, with some highly developed and complex melodies found in all songs, ranging from the quiet ballads to the strong and aggressive sections. References to both Dream Theater and Katatonia are aplenty, although especially the growled/screamed sections belie the former's influence somewhat, especially on a track like "Leave" which could almost be an Opeth song by all counts.

Now what do I mean by wrong order? All of the instrumentals and the way they are handled are seriously, without exaggeration, fucking amazing. The way they've been combined together even more so. But yet, the listener is inclined to feel overwhelmed rather than awe-inspired by the music, perhaps because it spends so much time on being as ambitious as possible, and very little time in adjusting that very ambition to an acceptable, listenable level for us music fans. The songs are lengthy, closer to five minutes and beyond, which is OK for progressive metal, but they contribute to the larger problem of the album: it simply lacks climax points. When the performance is so excellent all around, it starts to feel ordinary and conventional, when you'd instead want it to be exceptional and special in a couple of distinguishable points which reel you in once and for good.

The decision to include harsh, growled vocals as a contrast to the melancholic cleans is a good one, but one that needs to coincide better with more aggressive instrumentation for it to be most effective. Sure, there are moments where down-tuned riffs atypical to progressive metal are used, but not to the extent you would like. It really sucks to not be able to rate "Apoptosis" higher because of the excellence found within the musicians in the band, but there are too many sections that feel too much like filler preventing me to do so. p.s. the bass line of "Ordeal" is stolen from "Hysteria", a Muse classic.

Download: Leave, Present Remorse, The Burden
For the fans of: Dream Theater, Katatonia, later Amorphis,
Listen: Myspace

Release date 27.09.2010
Aftermath Music

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.