Customer Reviews

Sublimation

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As far as technical metal releases go, Canvas Solaris's debut is a promising and enjoyable album. It has everything that you would want from a tech/jazz metal album: Mind bogglingly good playing, full of odd and shifting time signatures and flawless production so that you can have your mind thoroughly ****ed by the ability to hear each and every note (there are lots of them) they play. The music might sound almost like a metal jam session by some musical virtuosos if it was not so meticulously tight and syncopated in some parts.

But Canvas Solaris go beyond just being your average technical metal band by adding atmospherics, interesting songwriting, and variation to their music. In this way they bear many resemblances to what I would imagine an instrumental Cynic (the favorite band of all three members of Canvas Solaris) sounds like - they have the same spacyness, jazz influences, and amazing musical chops. Songs range from short, mind bogglingly fast assaults of constantly switching riffs, such as the opener "Cosmopolysyndeton", to more drawn out but equally technical crescendos like "Ekstatik Parataxis (The New Measure)" or their two opuses "Sublimation" and "When Solar Winds Collide" (the best two songs on the album in my opinion). They add to these skillful compositions by accentuating them with sections of acoustic guitar playing, keyboards that remind me of a cheesy sci-fi movie (the whole album sort of feels like a trip through space really), and a variety of drums such as tablas and congas, there are more but those are the only two I definitely heard.

If you are a fan of hearing brilliant musicians playing brilliantly but never really straying too far into the realm of self-indulgence then Canvas Solaris are the ones from you. Be warned though, if you do not like the technical metal genre, they are quite unlikely to win you over.

I may be a little biased since I have been friends with Hunter, the drummer, for 10+ years, but regardless, this is simply some of the most progressive, brilliant, and innovative music out there. period. You don't neccessarily have to be a diehard fan of metal to enjoy Canvas, as their musical influences are absolutely all over the place. If you are even remotely a fan of prog/metal you need this album. If you are merely a fan of great music, then this is also a must have. Expect more and more great things from these guys.

Being a fan of such bands as Dream Theater, Andromeda, and Tool, I naturally spend a good deal of time trying to find other bands in their styles, and with their level of musicianship. One such band is Canvas Solaris, whose second album is quite honestly mind-blowing. I would listen to it over and over again, but listening even once gives my neurons too strenuous a workout to risk listening more than once a day. The level of complexity on this album is really refreshing, but each song has a cohesiveness that keeps it from just being a senseless meander through a prog-metal wasteland. There is also a good balance between heavier, distorted passages and softer, acoustic sections. Definitely the best album I've bought this year.

Wow! Never heard of these guys before, but I took a chance based on the reviews I had read being a fan of Fates Warning, OSI, Chroma Key, Dream Theater and Gordian Knot, etc. These guys definately have created something powerful here. I absolutely love this! And this CD came out two years ago! Where was I? Sure hope to hear something new from them soon. Also purchased the first CD and it is great too. They are superior musicians and it is quite hypnotic the way the music continuously changes. You have to hear it to believe it! Very highly recommended.

this has become my favorite album. period. i'm very hard to impress and this album joins the ranks of Cynic's Focus and Death's Symbolic in my list of favorite releases.

When one listens to a Canvas Solariss album, you get the feeling as if your plunging head first into a unknown, and relatively uncharted territory within the auditory spectrum. These songs are above and beyond well planned out. Each composition gives off its own distinctive aura, but underlying its belly is a well blended, but obvious influence, or pashion if you will, for various styles of progressive, and to say the very least complex genre's of music. The quality is superb!!! Dont wait, buy it now!

I purchased this as a reccomendation from amazon's site and I'm just blown away by the fantastic chops of these guys who play this off the wall jazz/ metal fusion. I went and purchased their other cd's on Itunes because amazon didn't offer them. I f you like this extreme type of music, I highly suggest getting all their music!