COMMUNIC – Hiding From The World – Review english

Power Metal

with powerful emotions and atmospheric depth will await us on 20.11.2020 from COMMUNIC (Facebook ). The troup has already been highly praised for their past works and it must be noted that they have been celebrating their music with the same line-up since their foundation in 2003. And now they send their new longplayer „Hiding From The World“ into the race. Interesting is the making of the album.

After the songwriting was roughly finished, the band moved away from the „normal“ hectic chaotic world into an oasis of peace and seclusion; like „hiding from the world“. At a Nordic fjord, the band was only focused on themselves and could therefore fully grasp the meaning of the songs and arrange them accordingly before the recordings started in the studio.

The first treat

„My Temple Of Pride“ was served and I really liked it. Immediately I noticed the great voice of singer Oddleif Stensland (by the way also an ingenious guitarist), which immediately captivated me. He has a an excellent technique. You can listen to this singing for hours. How fitting that the album has a strikingly long playing time of actually 1 hour.

Technically sophisticated

and ambitous, the songs convince with an intelligent song structure and clear line. There are no stylistic or tonal surprises. Nevertheless COMMUNIC focuses on variety in the song technical structure, which is also necessary for the length of the songs. COMMUNIC succeeds in making the above-average playing times entertaining and captivating the listener. (In my opinion, only the beautiful power ballad „Born Without A Heart“ could have been more to the point with three minutes less playing time.) They alternate between quiet melodic restraint and hard eruptions in the form of thrashy interludes. One does not even shy away from blastbeats.

The title track „Hiding From The World“ is also a monster song. It starts with clean guitar and restrained drums. A tender guitar solo is added to it. The climax leads to massive riffs and powerful choir vocals with great hooks. In between the song glides into harder darker waters, passes some rapids with relaxed drifting in shallow waters.

Comment by Oddleif about „Hiding From The World“:

„Hiding from The World“ was the first track we arranged and completed for the new album, and the song set the stone for much of the atmosphere and the mood on the album. It is a long song, moody, yet heavy with the dynamic build-up, tempo-changes and breakdowns we like to do. A story about a man on the edge of self-destruction, reaching out for help, but he seems like invicible to his surroundings, will anybody even notice if he disappear forever…. Hope you like it, it starts out slow, but goes heavy and deep and will take you on a journey, Cheers / Oddleif

Presstext AFM Records

Toughness meets emotions

„Plunder Of Thoughts“ introduces the album crisply and vehemently. For me, it’s a powerful performance, which comes across as fat and progressive and reveals the whole range of the COMMUNIC sound. A perfect introduction to the journey COMMUNIC takes us on. The powerful song is divided into driving forward pushing parts, partly bulky and massive rhythms up to shining melodic interludes. The songs „Face In The Crowd“ and „Scavengers Await“ strike with similar power.

Now from the first to the last track „Forgotten“, which is an epic masterpiece that is second to none. The song has a tremendous emotional depth that completely captured me. A veil of dark, depressive melancholy covers the song and then bursts out with a wave of emotional power that completely overwhelms you. The touching guitar solos do their part to make sure that this track has taken root in my heart and will certainly not be forgotten.

As a listener you should not expect the album to be easily accessible. This applies both to the lyrics and the songs themselves. In order to understand the songs, you should take your time and let the lyrics in connection with the compositions take effect on you. There are so many things to discover on the journey and there are so many emotions to capture.

Comment by Oddleif Stensland about the content

As for the lyrics and overal theme I had in mind during the writing of these songs, is dealing with what we leave behind as a legacy when we die. I wrote these songs with a feeling inside that my life could end tomorrow, this could be the last thing I leave behind as my legacy. Tomorrow I could be crushed by a drunk phonetexting truckdriver on my way to pick up my kids atschool. Life is unpredictable and we don’t know what will happen around next corner.

Well that sounds really drepressing, but that is where these songs are coming from and I think that feeling was captured throughout the songs and the stories on this album. And the artwork of Travis Smith just nails this feeling of hopelessness, overtaken by the earth and everything feels like it is out of reach or to overwhelming to comprehend, but still there is some trace of hope left. Maybe the most epic collections of songs that we ever have written!

Presstext AFM Records

Result

COMMUNIC convince with finest Power Metal, which shows off with hard line, but also a lot of feeling. The arrangements are bursting with emotional atmosphere and lyrical expressiveness. A remarkable album created by a fantastic trio.

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