Behind Closed Doors
Caged in Helices

Behind the closed the doors hides a trio hailing from Sweden, Germany, and The Netherlands – a multinational band. Caged in Helices is their second album, and it is said to be containing story arcs that captivates the mindful listener, so if you are one of them you might be captivated. I am not captivated by the look, the cover is dark and drab, it does not invite curiosity about the album but rather the opposite. But what hides behind this dreary artwork?

An instrumental post-metal album recorded mostly in Poland, half of the EU is almost represented on this album. It is not always following the post-metal manual, there are some progressive stuff, I read someone comparing them with the instrumental songs by Haken, not a bad description actually. There are some touches of sludge and things like that as well. The soundscapes are kind of like the artwork; without many contours or much dynamics, I think it mostly just mixes together into a thick soup of sound that doesn’t convey much at all. Vocals would have benefitted this album, a lot. I listened mostly to this one in my car, and as I know how long the journeys usually are, it is obvious that the album is fairly short in terms of minutes, but for some reasons my car journeys felt a lot longer when playing Caged in Helices.

I find that I don’t have much positive to say about this album, but the opener called The Anti Will is a good start, I like how they use strings and how it is balanced, it is a good track. But after that I don’t really like anything about the album, it is just a dull wait for it to start over with The Anti Will, as it is soon obvious to me that it is the only good track on the album. There are of course some other positives, I like that they at least try to find their own path rather than just copy what everyone else is doing – copying could have made the album better but probably also a lot less interesting. If they let the instruments speak more, and if the make their music more dynamic and adventurous there is a lot of potential here. Still, it requires many ifs to become something worthwhile.

Caged in Helices is not an album I enjoyed listening to, it is albums like it that makes this hobby into a chore at times, too much dullness and too little brilliance. Too bad that these guys didn’t change that point of view, but maybe they can do it the next time, but until then I see no point in bothering with Behind Closed Doors as this album is far too lost among the helices that listening to it will encage you in boredom.

HHHHHHH