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Coma - Excess review



Reviewer:
7.9

3 users:
7.33
Band: Coma
Album: Excess
Style: Rock
Release date: October 11, 2010
A review by: Doc G.


01. Excess
02. Transfusion
03. Poisonous Plants
04. Confusion
05. T.B.T.R.
06. Struggle
07. Afternoons In The Colour Of Lemo
08. Witnesses Of The Decline Of The Eternal Boys Land
09. Silence And Fire
10. Eckhart
11. F.T.P.
12. F.T.M.O.

In the 90's there was a musical movement known as grunge. Like any other genre of music, it produced good and bad music. Then what followed as a result made you want to have your junior high school days stricken from the pages of history; post grunge. Yes, we got to experience all the glorious sounds of musical geniuses like Creed, Staind or Seether. What was it about this mix of 90's grunge combined with modern alternative metal elements that just didn't work? Who the fuck knows? and who the fuck cares? You're just glad you forgot about those bands until a few seconds ago (sorry).

So what does any of this have to do with this interesting Polish outfit known as Coma? Well, someone finally made the previously noted amalgamations actually sound good. More specifically it sounds sort of like a combination of The Tea Party, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, all delivered in a sort of metal-ized progressive/psychedelic manner. The product is an album that's surprisingly simultaneously radio friendly, and has depth. The riffs are varied as much as they are unique sounding to this band, ranging from grunge and 90's rock to something closer to the classic rock sounds of Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin.

This is good and all, but this is one of those albums that seems to entirely lose direction by the halfway point. There are still extremely interesting parts scattered through until the very end, there's nothing that anchors these interesting parts to one another, so they seem to string the whole thing together with dreary ballad-like moments that prove to be utterly pointless by the end. Making this album 72 minutes was a bit redundant to say the least, when the quality moments probably totalled that of your average album. So in other words, there is about 30 minutes in there that is a complete waste of time on everybody's part.

The band sounds good, they just need to cut away the fat. I can picture Coma sounding absolutely amazing, as the overall sound is quite nice, but Excess is just a little too aimless to leave any serious lasting impressions.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 8
Production: 8





Written on 27.10.2010 by Former EIC. Now just a reviewer guy.


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 100 users
27.10.2010 - 11:21
jupitreas
hi-fi / lo-life
Staff
Since Coma is a very popular band in Poland, I'm compelled to give some more info:
- Excess was released in Polish in 2008, this is the same album but with lyrics sung in English with a very bad accent
- Excess was actually the band's third album and generally considered to be far worse than the two previous releases
- in Poland, Coma is considered to be a prog band, not post-grunge
- Coma are easily the biggest rock superstars in Poland at the moment, Riverside is underground compared to them
- they were fairly well received by scene people with their first album; however, they began getting really pretentious and excessive and fittingly, by Excess, most rock and metal fans got fed up and hate them now.

With all this said, I'd recommend for all those interested to check out Coma's first album since it really isnt all that bad... The singer has a great voice; however, it seems that he only knows how to use it in his native language since from what I've heard of this English version of Excess, his vocals are significantly worse than they have ever been. Here's a good example of Coma being great:
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27.10.2010 - 12:56
Well, the above with a bit of grunting would have been better.... This is so derivative it's incredible. Metal by numbers. Angry faces. Band playing in the rain. Angry singer with raspy voice. Killer guitar solo... so boring! But I can see the appeal...
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27.10.2010 - 13:27
Rating: 7
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
Staff
Written by jupitreas on 27.10.2010 at 11:21

- in Poland, Coma is considered to be a prog band, not post-grunge

I also wouldn't consider them strictly post-grunge, but there is some elements in there. I was merely stating how they mixed some of the grunge sound with a more modern metallic edge in the same way a lot of post-grunge bands did.
----
"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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27.10.2010 - 13:34
jupitreas
hi-fi / lo-life
Staff
Written by Doc G. on 27.10.2010 at 13:27

Written by jupitreas on 27.10.2010 at 11:21

- in Poland, Coma is considered to be a prog band, not post-grunge

I also wouldn't consider them strictly post-grunge, but there is some elements in there. I was merely stating how they mixed some of the grunge sound with a more modern metallic edge in the same way a lot of post-grunge bands did.

Yeah, well, I actually agree with your initial categorization. I have a suspicion that the prog-rock label was propagated by the band themselves to appear more sophisticated and intellectual.
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