Hear something in a different light…
Rolled up and released on 18 March 2016 through ViciSolum Productions and reviewed here by Stephen “quarts and quatrains” Brophy
Exploding out of Athens, Greece there has been a lot of talk about the Progressive Metal band Poem in recent times so getting the chance to wrap my ears around their new release Skein Syndrome after catching them on tour with Amorphis last month was something I was always going to jump at. This is their second album following up on 2009’s excellent The Great Secret Show, and I have to say, I’m loving this one. What was quite hard to believe was that the run with Amorphis was their first European Tour.
Opening with such a strong track as ‘Passive Observer’ can be an issue sometimes when the rest of the music doesn’t live up to the high bar set by such a strong opener, but this time the high quality is maintained throughout. Shades of dark and light litter the landscape they create. Tracks like ‘Fragments’, ‘Bound Insanity’ and ‘Remission Of Breath’ are just terrific and the band has done a great job along with the production team, the sound is crisp and at the same time not overworked, guitars in particular seem just right in the mix.
There are elements of their peers at times in this particular release, but not in such a way that they are copying anything, the quality of the songs should see them grace Prog stages at Festivals around Europe for years to come. There is an essential beauty to songs like ‘Weakness’ while they manage to maintain a hard edge, not the easiest thing to pull off. Does an album like this always have to be metal? No. Does it have to always have Prog elements? No. But that’s the idea. It’s Progressive Metal, it should get your mind working and encourage widening horizons, and this does all of those.
This is an excellent album which has honestly been spinning on my systems since it arrived. There’s something really catchy about the tracks. They are not just simple compositions that are throwaway, they require proper listening. There are plenty of intricacies that become clear just as you are thinking about something else you have just heard. So, put the album on another spin cycle and hear something in a different light. It’s a joy to be refreshed again.
8.5 out of 10
Track list:
- Passive Observer
- Fragments
- The End Justifies The Means
- Bound Insanity
- Weakness
- Desire
- Remission Of Breath
