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Flow is the full-length debut album from French/Swedish Metal band Coexistence. Flow contains all four songs from Carrion Comfort, the band's 2009 demo, a release I like quite a bit. The heavy, aggressive Progressive Metal of the demo is in full swing on Flow but Coexistence also expands their repertoire with some slower, contemplative tracks.

The songs from the demo, "Carrion Comfort," "Twisted Soul," "Seize the Day," and "Layarteb" are some of the stronger tracks on Flow, so Coexistence did a great job picking the lineup for their demo. They sound just as good, if not better on Flow. Grégory Giraudo's riffs remain sharp and crunchy and Carl Lindquist's gritty mid-range is the perfect voice for this style. Of the newer songs "Flow" takes a more thoughtful approach that doesn't seek to beat you over the head but still manages to stay heavy. Some of the other tracks like "Lord of War" and "Unspoken" aren't quite up to the level of the original demo material, but are not bad either, just not as immediately memorable. What you will not forget anytime soon is the epic 24+ minute closer "Akira." This song caught me by surprise as I was not expecting anything of this scope, but that did not stop me from hitting "repeat" the minute it was over. This sprawling composition gives Progressive Metal fans just about everything they might want in a song; from heavy pounding riffs, slower, emotional keyboard passages, female choirs, sound effects and so on. And at no point did I ever get bored, which is amazing with a song of that length. Well done, to say the least.

I recommended Coexistence to fans of Threshold, Symphony X and Dream Theater when I reviewed Carrion Comfort and that recommendation still stands. I won't put them in the same class as those giants yet, but with Flow, Coexistence has taken a step (or three) towards those lofty heights.