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What the hell is in the water in Norway? With the Black Metal scene pretty much in ruins down there, it seems like the Progressive Metal scene has taken over the grandeur we experienced with such bands like Burzum and Emperor. Nowadays, we have Pagan's Mind, Circus Maximus, and Communic which are no doubt redefining how Progressive Metal should be done. However, Communic seems to do things a little differently. Throughout the album you can no doubt feel the Progressive and technical songwriting, but the strange part is how the keyboard wankery is missing and the fret board masturbation is at a minimum. There are a lot of crunchy riffs here, aggressive drumming and complex basslines that blew me away when the first song (which also happens to be the title cut) finished.

Damn, I even had to repeat the songs no less than a dozen times before I proceeded with the rest of the album. This is no doubt one of those disguised Progressive Metal gems that contain atypical eccentric and thoughtful lyrical themes, an interesting concept, and brilliant musicianship without the entire keyboard and effect wankery. The transition in-between the tracks are incredible! Everything in the album flows wonderfully and smoothly with a polished production job. The song structures are no doubt extremely complex and somewhat epic, and the shortest song is 6 minutes and 44 seconds. This obviously means that for an album of 7 tracks, some of them have to be ranging from 7 or 8 minutes on average.

There's not much more to say about this album except that it is a mandatory release for Heavy Metal and Progressive Metal fans alike. Even if you don't really view Progressive metal as your cup of tea, give the album a shot and ignore the typical "Progoshop" album cover (seems to be rather typical nowadays). You won't be let down, everything in this album is excellent and the album honestly grows on you even more with time. Highly recommended!