Jam side up.
A few albums in and Canvas Solaris has progressed from a three piece to a five piece and replaced some of their heavier metal rock outs with more progressive twiddling and atmospherics. Their completely instrumental sound seems to rely on complex mathy riffs and the occasional anthemic section in between swathes of gentle fuzzy noise; with the heavier bits sounding like Sikth when they were still alive and riffing. The tunes are often impressively put together and skilfully played; the time signatures on the spacey ‘Solar Droid’ for example seem so random it’s hard to imagine being able to learn them, and this is often the case on the record as a whole so that the majority of it feels like one huge jazz-metal jam.
Last track, ‘The Unknowable and Defeating Glow’ is by far the best track on the album; it feels as though the whole record has been building to this. There is a more structured approach to the beginning of the ten plus minute track with a synth driven tune and solid riffs to back everything up rumbling away beneath, then later after five or six minutes a fractured beat takes over challenging the guitars and synths to keep up with the drums.
Heavy sections are quite sparsely scattered throughout giving much more of an old school prog-rock feel than a full on metal sound, which may come as a surprise from this band. Overall, it’s a very laid back affair, especially the opening track where a relaxed electro feel could almost deceive you into thinking this was a dance album. Obviously the fretwork and solos give away reasonably early on that something heavier is coming but the album never really takes off into seriously heavy metal territory, instead perpetually skirting the boundaries.
An interesting record in many respects; for much of the time it’s impressive but difficult to connect with emotionally, the math-randomness of it all removes you from each tune enough that you can analyze it but not immerse yourself in the music.