AGNOSIA - Trace Decay
Agnosia - Trace Decay
\r\n"Trace Of Decay" is the first concept album by "Agnosia", a progressive\r\nmetal band fro\r\nPireaus, Greece. The star is Edward, a famous actor and theatrical\r\nproducer, currently starring in the acclaimed "Piccadilly Circus\r\nNights".Having\r\nreached the peak of his career and enjoyning critical and\r\ncommercial success, decides to take a break. He plans to dedicate this\r\ntime to his \r\nmuch younger fiancee Alysia. And this how the story begins .... For\r\nthose who\r\nwant to know the rest of the story, listen to the album! For now let’s\r\nreview the albume starting from the cover and the booklet this time.
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\r\nThe cover, but also the booklet were designed by Jen\r\nAnastas. He did a pretty job and although the designs have a minimal\r\nstyle, is strong enough to make someone feel, if that someone has read\r\nthe story first, that he / she is in\r\nLondon between 1850 - 1900. The sepia color is giving the impression\r\nthat everything is old, while some pages have images from a theather of\r\nthat era. Also, as the lyrics are written in the pages, there is a dose\r\nof\r\nparanoia which reflects Edward’s soul. I have always believing that the\r\ncovers and booklets should be not be dealed as\r\npaintings but as a utility that the album owner could use in order to\r\nread the lyrics without having his eyes out, but also the cover to show\r\nas much as possible the songs’ feelings. I think that this is a very\r\ngood job, just because when I first looked at the cover the first word\r\nthat came to my mind was .... madness.
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\r\nThe band has many and great influences,\r\nsuch as Queensryche, Fates Warning, Pain Of Salvation, Savatage, Nevermore, Symphony X, Opeth and others. The good\r\npart is, and this is an album advantage, that the disk has eleven tracks plus\r\na bonus and all of them are quite long enough. The listener will enjoy that.
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\r\nThe music is quite melodic, aggressive but not all the time. There\r\nare some thrash tunes here and there in the songs that are used most\r\neffectively\r\nto draw the Edward’s state. Additionally there are some extras rear\r\nmelodies come in from nowhere in order to play with our ears and mind\r\nwith pleasure. The "A Concrete Paradise" is a superb ballad with\r\njazz, influences, as well as the "Insanity’s\r\nRomance", where the melancholic violin leads. It is oblvious that the\r\nband while was writing the music, had a clear plan about it, and the\r\nfinal result ia really mature one.
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\r\nAdditionally, production and mixing are full and have been\r\nmusically correct regarding the concept. Let’s assume we have a film in\r\nwhich\r\nwant to compose some osts. We take one major scene from the film, see\r\nhow the\r\ncharacters react and what emotions result from this scene. So now we\r\nare able to compose the right music for the scene, but because now we\r\ndon’t have a visual scene, but we have a concept story, the band added\r\nsome samples such the sound of a glass that is breaking. All of that\r\nmakes the song visualisation easier for the listener.
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\r\nFinally, once again I am glad listening to mature Greek bands. I\r\nremember listening to the songs of Sarissa\r\nfrom their first album, and now I listen to Greek prog metal bands and\r\nit\r\nseems, without having to be a specialist to understand that there has\r\nbeen a lot of progress since that time. We wish them the best!!!!\r\n
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\r\nKonstantinos Grevenites \r\n
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