Communic - Payment of Existence

Communic are coming from Norway, once known as the world-wide capital of Black Metal, but the sound of the Norwegians have very little in common with the genre. Those who already had the chance to listen to them know that Communic practise a very muscled and melodic Power-Metal that denotes some influences from US act Nevermore. The associations with the Seattle group are well known largely thanks to the vocal similarities between guitarist/vocalist Oddleif Stensland and Warrel Dane as both posses a slightly nasal voice with a notable range and expressivity.
Musically, the Norwegian trio doesn’t step away from the formula explored by Nevermore in albums like “Neon Dreaming Black” and “Dead Heart in the Dead World” either, a Power-Metal with melodic and dramatic contours perhaps only differentiating in the way Communic favour a more epic and diverse approach with constant oscillations between melody, aggressiveness, atmosphere and heaviness. Such kind of dynamism also brings to mind the epic metallers Iced Earth.
Containing only eight songs, the majority of them reaching the mark of eight minutes, “Payment of Existence” is very powerful album with rich and memorable arrangements that bears an excellent and crystalline production work courtesy of the Danish producer Jacob Hansen. There’s no theme that deserves more mention than others, all of them are very strong in their own way, from the powerful, catchy and epic opener “On Ancient Ground” to the final track, the complex, thrashy and fast “Stone Carved Eyes”, passing through the atmospheric and introspective “Raven' s Cry”.
“Payment of Existence” is definitely an album worth revisiting on future occasions. (7/10)

Band info: www.myspace.com/communic
Label info: www.nuclearblast.de