Reviews: Final Coil, Disconnected Souls, Advocacy, MesaVerde (Reviews By Rich Piva & Matt Bladen)

Final Coil - The World We Inherited (Sliptrick Records) [Rich Piva]

I like to peruse the promo folder and check out a little of everything to see if there is anything that, upon quick listen, piques my interest to grab to review out of the stuff I had never heard of before that is in the queue. In this case, the new album The World We Inherited, from the UK Alt/Prog Metal band Final Coil, jumped out at me and sounded like something I may enjoy digging into. 

I was surprised to hear that this Final Coil has not faired to well on this blog in the past, and that if I enjoyed The World We Inherited that it would be the first time we would have something positive to say about one of their releases. Well, I am here to say the trend has been broken, because this thing rocks.

I mean take Wires for example. I love the vocals, I love the guitar work, I love the wall of sound it brings. What a great track. Do they sound like Tool and Pink Floyd like their bio says? Hell no, not even close. Do they bring some cool alt metal to the table? They sure do. 

I love the chug of the guitar on Chemtrails to go along with the echoey vocals and nice key work. Is it a bit too produced for my usual liking? Indeed, but it is not too slick to make it unlistenable like a lot of bands playing this style today. By Starlight is an interesting track, driven by the synths and is more of the lighter slow burn variety until the chunkiness arrives. 

The Growing Shadows keeps the pace down but keeps up that wall of sound thing they have going on with great results. The middle does drag a bit with Stay With Me and Purify being the third and fourth mid-tempo tracks in a row that musically remind me of Placebo. I would have been OK with these as a B-side to be honest to make the record a bit crisper. Humanity musically reminds me of a Ministry lite track while the closer, End Of History has a more electronic Chevelle vibe which is pretty consistent across The World We Inherited.

Final Coil checks a lot of boxes for me. Layered, chant like vocals. Nice synths/keys partnered nicely with some chunky guitar work. A catchiness that you would not expect. Are they a tad pretentious? Yup. Does the middle drag a bit? It does. Would I say my band sounds like Tool and Pink Floyd when it is not even close? No, no I would not. Is The World We Inherited a fun listen that I have spun a half dozen times now and will continue to be in rotation for me? You bet. 7/10

Disconnected Souls - Fragments Of Consciousness (Self-Released) [Matt Bladen]

Disconnected Souls have been a around since 2018 blending classical, electronic and metal in what is called cinematic metal. It basically means that they play progressive metal music that doesn't have a lot of boundaries, one minute thumping electronica, the next crushing industrial, then emotional djent and ambient gothic textures, or jazz on Monachopsis (A Waltz At The End Of The World). A trio of vocalists and an array of instruments are used throughout their music. 

Having released an EP and a number of singles they have now finally delivered their debut record, which is just as diverse as you'd expect from this Chester quintet. With a track such as Loveless the music of Disconnected Souls manages to skilfully blend twitching electronica/dubstep with metalcore, but then they also take things in a heavier direction on the Dissonant Whispers.

Their lyrics deal with our connection to the natural world and how we're destroying it, they dabble in politics on Plague Rats while there's also some flights of fantasy on the quirky Silence Of The Drums, the genre tag of Cinematic Metal linking to the conceptual nature of this record, the Mischievous Spirits introduced on the last track of their EP, sees the spirit trying to make sense of the world, travelling through the world and these songs providing the soundtrack. 

At times it's like a Kate Bush record, with added heaviness or it could be a gothic metal band playing EDM. If you read the interviews with the band around this album, they aren't really bothered about whether you like it or not, neither are they fussed if you 'get it' they just want you to experience it. 

Concluding with the the ambient electronics of Iyashikei, Fragments Of Consciousness cements Disconnected Souls as one of the most intriguing acts in the UK music scene. 7/10

Advocacy - The Path Of Decoherence (UPRISING! Records) [Matt Bladen]

Danish prog metal band Advocacy were formed in Aarhus, Denmark and share a lot of similarities to fellow Danes VOLA. They play impressive technical metal which has some glorious vocal harmonies, jazz time signatures and dynamic song writing which sits between extreme metal and classic prog rock. 

Despite being around since 2015, The Path Of Decoherence is their debut album, but the have had two previous EP's which has dictated how their music has progressed, gaining higher musical density, leading to them being able to start this album with a Introductory instrumental which pairs grandiose piano with soaring guitars. It's a little bit Queen, in a good way, before the bass kicks in for first proper track is the 8 minute Pray For The Reckless, the bass from Peter Juelsgaard a key component to this track, more so than the trio of guitarists. 

Yep you read that right there are three guitarists in this band Søren Wind, Peter Locher and Søren Kjeldsen who bring a wide array of chops to these elongated songs, weaving in and out of each other with riffs and solos. Check out Leap Of Faith if you don't believe me, it falls more toward the eclectic style of Opeth, instrumentally and vocally with Kjeldsen crooning and roaring like Akerfeldt. 

Elsewhere the slow burning Star Formation features some Tool-esque drumming from Andreas Bek Nygaard Hansen, there's joyous riffs on Deranged and djenting on Unnamed. The Path Of Decoherence is a debut album that will make a mark on the progressive metal crowd in 2024. 7/10

MesaVerde - All Is Well (Apollon Records) [Rich Piva]

I am not usually very scientific with what I try to grab from the promo folder. If it says stoner, doom, psych, proto, or any combination of those I will most likely try to stake claim to it to review. Occasional I will grab gothic or occult, and occasionally venture into prog territory. 

For full disclosure on this one, I grabbed the new record from MesaVerde not because it was labelled as prog, but because the band name is a key part of one of my favourite TV shows of all time, Better Call Saul. This has nothing to do with their new album, All Is Well, but let’s see if my love of BCS matches what the Norwegian progsters bring us with their second full length album.

The band throws out Yes and Zeppelin in their description of All Is Well and I am not sure I can fully agree. Yes totally, but I am searching for Zeppelin vibes and coming up empty. There is no real rock crunch to All Is Well, it is more of a soft rock prog journey that tends to hug you rather than kick you in the face. Deep Time has some weird key sounds and a very chill vibe, but there is something missing to me. 

Pyramid Fucksnake is an awesome title, and it rocks for a bit, but for me this is pure later period Yes stuff. Moments is more of a soft rock with some prog elements and is a bit too Air Supply for me. Eva is an acoustic driven track that does nothing for my stance that this is missing something. Tracing had a cool Krautrock moment and is probably my favourite track on All Is Well, but it is nothing I will go back to at any point. I tried a few times end to end, but the second half of the record drags more than the first.

I will stick with my MesaVerde being Kim Wexler’s most important client rather than the band, because I could just not connect with All Is Well. I am fine with atmospheric prog and softer rock, but to me something was severely missing with this, be it I was looking for more crunch, more balls, more catchiness, or maybe all three. It’s obvious these guys know what they are doing musically, it is just that All Is Well was not for me. 5/10