Koma "Tsunami" CD
[Fullsteam]
This Swedish act features members of Cult of Luna, The Perishers, Scared, and Plastic Pride, and it's a god damn crime that almost no one seems to have heard of them. Shit, if nothing else the Cult of Luna connection should draw them some interest, but this is a phenomenal disc chock full of midpaced atmospherics ranging from heavy and plodding chord progressions to lush clean passages, chilled out experimental drones or keyboard accents, and thickly melodic rhythms with post-hardcore smatterings and lots of layering. And all of this fronted by relatively calm singing vocals that at times open up into some impressively memorable harmonies (check out the dynamic and powerful "Like Coming Home" for a perfect example of this). The result comes off musically sounding somewhat akin to the whole Cult of Luna thing as far as tempo and overall tone of the pulsing basslines and punch of the guitars/drums, but the sense of melody and the character of the singing makes things much more memorable... and, dare I say... "catchy"? That's not the right word for it because this is all very somber work, but... the singing is really fuckin' good, and that definitely leaves a mark. "Stop Making Speeches" opens the disc on a slightly bleaker note that carries on fairly consistently and keeps some of the more overt melody in check; "Just Another Host" is a perfect blend of heaviness and melody with one of the more memorable choruses of the disc; "Not in My Name" is more ominously heavy at the start, and some of that continues as the harder-edged chord progressions carry along; while by contrast "One Last Moment" opens with softer clean guitars and more subdued singing, keeping even the percussion relatively quiet for the duration of the piece. Closer "Fifth Column (I've Seen Evil)" runs just past six minutes and has some nice sparse areas with distant vocal textures and volume swells proper to exploding into another noisier passage of thick chords and harder rhythms. Overall the vocals really add a unique feel, because this work would come off far differently were the vocals shouted or screamed. I, for one, am definitely in favor of this singing. Great stuff. The production is killer. Considering all of the layering it's natural for there to be a bit of detail lost, and that is indeed the case, but I'm not bothered by that because when the band plays loud there's an absolute wall of impenetrable sound, and that makes the calmer areas that much more of a shift in dynamics. The percussion sounds natural and the drummer hits hard as hell, the basslines are brutally thick and peek out just based on suffocating presence alone, the guitars sound fine across the board, and the vocals are brighter and a little clearer/more central than everything else. I wouldn't change much about this puppy at all, they're right on track in that department. Visually this thing looks amazing, with a few stark photographs of cold winter landscapes and some dirty textures of birds alongside bits and pieces of legible text paragraphs (I'm guessing the lyrics, but there are no complete lines visible - some of what I can make out definitely takes a socio-political road, though). The jewel case comes in a matte slip sleeve with more of the abstract bird imagery. Very, very nice. I'm loving this disc. I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't know it would be so consistently good. Come on, people, wake up and check this stuff out. I'm not kidding, it's a crime that I'm not hearing more about this band. What gives? (8/10)
Running time - 37:58, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Stop Making Speeches, Like Coming Home, Just Another Host, Fifth Column (I've Seen Evil)]
Koma - http://www.komamusic.com

This review has been displayed 4138 times.