COMMUNIC – Payment Of Existence

It was not so long ago that a young Norwegian band released a remarkable debut album entitled Conspiracy In Mind and followed that one up with an even better sophomore release called Waves Of Visual Decay. Not only among fans, the band was also loved by the critics, so if they would be able to continue down this road, hardly anything would stand in the band’s way to become a pillar of the contemporary Metal communicty, – oops, sorry: community.

So only after two albums, expectations for this album were extraordinarily high. While a debut album often can be compiled of material developed and matured over time, and sometimes even some remnants are left to be used on the second album, the third release mostly is the one that determines the future of a band as they have to come up with new material in a short time. In this case, the stand or fall release leaves nothing to be desired and is one of the most ‘standing’ ones as of late.

So what did the band do differently compared to Waves Of Visual Decay? One is tempted to say “nothing at all,” and though that is close to the truth, it is not the whole truth. The sound is similar, the lengthy compositions are there again, yet the album has a slightly different feel being a nuance darker and slower… not that speed was ever an important trait of Communic. Payment Of Existence as a whole sits comfortably between “Frozen Asleep In The Park” and “Fooled By The Serpent” from the last album (if you do not have it yet, go get both releases from one of the most important newcomer bands of this decade!), which gives us the last difference to their former compositions: The new album has even stronger vocal melodies throughout the whole album, not only in a few songs.

Another similarity between the last two albums is that there is no single outstanding song on each. With the lengthy songs it takes several spins before the multitude of melodies and the abundance of musical details let the listener perceive the shape of each individual composition. Upon the first handful of spins, some songs tend to blend into another if one does not listen closely. But, after a while a whole new dimension opens up and lets the fans discover the album again song for song. This is fun for a long time.

With a focus on details and the obvious aim to sophisticate their style, this album is nothing less than an outstanding effort, which means a fine release like Waves Of Visual Decay becomes only the third best in their discography. Who would have expected that three years ago? Of course, the comparisons to Nevermore and especially Warrel Dane will not be silenced, but maybe even increase, but who cares if the result is such a strong album? Communic have found their way and style, and fans can expect big things for the future from Norwegian’s finest – which they have become with this album!