MetalMind 2013
Kaleidoscopic jibe at the prog purist nerve makes for a masterstroke.
If this Polish band’s previous effort, 2009’s "Uninvited Dreams", offered a bed-ridden, albeit non-static, pleasure leading to conclusion that their dreams are well worth pursuing, it’s follow-up brazenly refuses to stand in one place. Such a trajectory might be confusing, but almost every single piece here shines in its own way. The freedom that the group gained with an arrival of standalone singer Marek Majewski is palpable: it underlies the pellucid uplift of “Until You’re Gone” as well as the tight harmonies of funky “Fear” and also unhinges the groove of the tellingly titled “Stronger” which rocks hard over Lukasz Lisiak’s bulging bass.
The rhythm takes on a dancefloor swirl on “Different Worlds,” yet the melodic zigzag gets the most riveting in the instrumental “David’s Wasp,” when Rafal Paluszek’s piano switches from elegiac romanticism to reckless boogie and Bartek Bereska adds a bluesy guitar to the flow that is reprised in the elegant, almost lounge “Master Of Puppets” reimagining. What with the metallic heaviness of “Shut” and “Mighty World” with their memory-cutting choruses or opening salvo of “Hard-Boiled Wonderland,” the adventure holds sway on the album, which eventually reveals the perfect logic of its title: the particles tend to collide, but together, they create the moving, living whole.
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