Lifeless Ocean is the debut album of Continuum, a progressive metal band from France. The members are Clement Marse (lead and backing vocals), Aldebaran (acoustic, electric guitars and bass), Frank Dibari (keyboards) and Guillaume Morero (drums and spoken words). Their main musical influences are from Dream Theater, Andromeda, Pain of Salvation and Opeth. The first track, Universe Of Spherec Perspective, is instrumental and starts with acoustic Spanish guitars, but soon the atmosphere changes. The sound of the powerful drums and the aggressive heavy guitar riffs makes you realize that we have to deal with a prog metal band here. A track with nice melody lines, several solos and a dramatic ending. Representation Of The Inner Force is a more traditional heavy metal song, but with enough breaks and variation to make sure that you don’t get bored. The speed increases on the third track End Of Life, especially the drums. Clement sings very well here and even without a trace of a French accent. However, it is a pity that some parts of this track sound almost similar to the previous tracks. That also applies to track four, Extinction Of Mu, which is in fact a summary of the first three tracks. Faded Illusion starts as a ballad, but has some heavy riffs in the middle section. Lifeless Ocean is just what you expect from the title: sounds of waves, acoustic guitar and drumming in the background. Theatre Of War is the heaviest track on this album, but again: a merge of track 2, 3 and 4. Having reached the next track the lack of variation starts to annoy me. Twisted Paths Of Fatalism starts slowly with female singing and acoustic guitars. In the last minute, there is a traditional Gary Moore/Eddie van Halen guitar solo with some spoken words of drummer Guillaume. Dark Sight begins as a Stratovarius song and has several breaks. The last track Hell On Earth is the longest track and a combination of all previous tracks. It has several musical duets between the guitars and the keyboards, but it ends very abruptly. If you are interested in buying this album, than first listen to the final track Hell On Earth. If you like that one, than buy it. If not, buy another one... ** Cor Smeets (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
