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Communic was a hot topic on The Metal Crypt's message board back in the mid-2000s when the band showed up on everyone's radar. I had completely forgotten about them and, in fact, I believe I never found the time to check them out way back when. In the power metal realm, Hiding from the World is kind of tame sounding in that it's not filled with speedy songs with soaring vocals that are usually associated with the genre. The opener, "Plunder of Thoughts", sets the mood for solemn, epic heavy metal. It's a bizarre album that often feels like a random gathering of songs rather than a coherent album proper. Because of that, I found that whether I could go through the album very much depended on my mood. Sometimes I just stopped the album and moved on to something else, while at other times I found myself enjoying the variety of the songs and really just focused on each song individually.

While their early works are labelled as progressive power metal, Hiding from the World is more of a power/thrash affair and power metal proper rarely comes to mind though the one-hour duration. All songs except one—an intro before the last song—are seven minutes and up in length, so you're not getting out of this one without some work on your part. The vocal melodies remind me a lot of Nevermore some 20 years ago, though not quite as dark. So, this is a weird album that's hard to follow, but the band's experience shines through every note and, while I don't know if fans of their early works will be on board with this, it's certainly worth checking out.