Family
Portrait

Well, it seems to be the time of the family ties these days, a week or so ago it was Father and Son and now we have the entire family and a portrait at that, a family portrait perhaps. We have a painting as a cover art, and we also have a not so searchable band name making me constrained to the band’s official website for looking up what has been said about this album which is very positive things. And in the press info there is all powerful names that are counted as comparisons, and it is a debut album that is said to be spanning from modern progressiveness all the way to classic hardrock. That to me sounds very exciting but it is one thing to do the business talk and a whole other thing to deliver upon that promise.

Musically it is modern extreme progressive metal with some growly (not very good) vocals mixed with some parts classic hardrock, some parts family bonds and some other stuff as well. It is a conceptual album about a dysfunctional family who ends up with super powers, this is a concept that you do not reflect about when listening to the album I didn’t even think about it once I learnt about it so it is not detracting for you who are not bothered by conceptual stuff. It is well produced with a very good sound that is modern yet has a taste of the seventies, an interesting sound that reminds a bit also of countrymen in Stealing Axion. The album lacks a bit of variation and dynamics which for some may be something of a negative, I do think that it is a bit of a surprise that it isn’t more dynamic at least after hearing the opening track but not much really happen in the sense of a adventure over the 47 minutes this album lasts.

It is a good album, a strong production that will most likely appeal to many who manages to find it in the shelves or whatever. I think it unfortunately is a slight bit static, especially thanks to the vocals that completely lacks dynamics and that effects the rest of the album as well, not that it is a big thing in the bigger picture but it is still there. I also think that this album stands on a very solid foundation but I would have liked to see them building something fore fresh and exciting from that foundation because to me this sounds like something I have heard in one variety or another at least ten times the last two years and that is a lot. It is still good but I just have this feeling that it should have been better, but it just isn’t which is unfortunate.

Still, if you like the similar bands and/or bands like for instance Stealing Axion, The Safety Fire, Snailking, The Firstborn and several more that I don’t recall the names of at the moment then I advice you to take a look at it because I hold it for likely that you will quite like this album, if nothing of this excites you then this will most likely not excite you either. So it is an album for a certain type of people and a rather good and exciting one which to me shows more promise than it delivers and that which is it delivers is not quite enough to hold my attention.