Norwegian prog metal band Communic will be releasing their sixth album on 20th November, and it will be going under the title of Hiding From The World for what’s been described as a “dark and atmospheric”work.
A household name in the European Metal scene since they began, Communic aim for “emotional depth and musical broadness” and include many elements from various metal genres. Vocal melodies, thrilling bass and guitar lines colliding with power, thrash, progressive and a bit of doom and groovy metal are all on offer. The music has a progressive touch in some experimental form, yet easy to listen to, quite moody, mellow and emotional.
Tracks featured on Hiding From The World are ‘Plunder Of Thoughts’, ‘Hiding From The World’, ‘My Temple Of Pride’, ‘Face In The Crowd’, ‘Born Without A Heart’, ‘Scavengers Await’, ‘Soon To Be’ and ‘Forgotten’. The record will be available from AFM Records.
The band, consisting of Oddleif Stensland (Vocals, guitars), Erik Mortensen (Bass) and Tor Atle Andersen (Drums), has thus far released two singles. ‘My Temple Of Pride‘ was first, followed recently by the title track, regarding which Stensland said:
“‘Hiding from The World’ was the first track we arranged and completed for the new album, and the song set the stone for much of the atmosphere and the mood on the album. It is a long song, moody, yet heavy with the dynamic build-up, tempo-changes and breakdowns we like to do. A story about a man on the edge of self-destruction, reaching out for help, but he seems like invincible to his surroundings, will anybody even notice if he disappear forever…. Hope you like it, it starts out slow, but goes heavy and deep and will take you on a journey, Cheers.”
You can watch official videos for both these singles right here at RAMzine.
Discussing the album, Oddleif explained that it was in 2019 that he began starting to write and put together new material for their sixth album. When most of the ideas and sketches for the songs where ready, the band spent a long weekend at a cabin by the shore in a southern fjord in Norway, where they set up their gear and some basic recording equipment to arrange the songs together. Already here at this remote place, away from distractions, the idea for the album title emerged together with the core structure of the songs. By the end of the year, the guys went into Oddleif´s Stoneland Studio to record a pre-production of the album.
In the end of January 2020, Tor Atle started to record the drums in Mayhem Studio in Kristiansand, Norway. Shortly after this the worldwide covid-19 pandemic broke out and everything shut down, and the recording process stopped for a while. Then, in the beginning of March 202,0 the band started again to record the bass, guitars and vocals in Stoneland Studio getting everything ready for mixing. At this time Travis Smith agreed to create the artwork for the album, and worked on completing his ideas, and Lasse Lammert at LSD-Studio in Germany was assigned to be in charge of the mixing and mastering. The title for the album Hiding From The World fitting the time and state the world is in at the moment, but that was just coincidental.
Oddleif said: ”The songs on this album is quite diverse, but true to the Communic style that we started out doing back in 2003. Long songs as we normally end up doing, only seven songs in total and a short intro clocking in at over 60 minutes, that all holds the tension, emotions and dynamics that we like to do. There are some mellow and emotional, yet heavy songs, some really heavy songs, even some blast beats, stuff that we have never have done before. A nice mix up of traditional Communic power and emotional depth.
“As for the lyrics and overall theme I had in mind during the writing of these songs, is dealing with what we leave behind as a legacy when we die. I wrote these songs with a feeling inside that my life could end tomorrow, this could be the last thing I leave behind as my legacy. Tomorrow I could be crushed by a drunk phone-texting truckdriver on my way to pick up my kids at school. Life is unpredictable and we don’t know what will happen around next corner.
“Well that sounds really depressing, but that is where these songs are coming from and I think that feeling was captured throughout the songs and the stories on this album. And the artwork of Travis Smith just nails this feeling of hopelessness, overtaken by the earth and everything feels like it is out of reach or to overwhelming to comprehend, but still there is some trace of hope left. Maybe the most epic collections of songs that we ever have written!
“Now, the calendar says 2020, and it sounds almost like a science fiction movie from the 80’ties, but it is a fact. Communic survived since early 2003, and are still the same three members in the band today, as to the day the band was formed. That is something to be proud of. With Communic the Norwegian – no, the worldwide – metal scene still has an exciting and forward-looking name to remember.”
