Simulacrum - Sky Divided

Simulacrum (which means more or less an image - representation - avatar) is a Finish quintet (?) that have existed since 2004, but only released their debut a couple of years ago. I had not happened upon them before and I must say that their almost “progressive”, but also aggressive and groovy style that’s not necessarily copying any of the “usual suspects” initially sounded quite interesting, they seem to be mixing a more modern approach, with more compact, phrasing, small chunky riffs and groovy drumming with the sole clearly prog, giveaway being the sci-fi floaty keyboards. They weren’t too bad, until the singer started doing “his thing”. He’s not exactly bad, but he sounds like a hoarser and less precise version of the guy from Civil War and Astral Doors, so on occasion when he attempts some more ambitious vocal ideas, he tends to sound quite on the brink or downright, plainly bad. Throughout the album I felt like this was some early “Blind Guardian(s Of The Galaxy)” album – with a space opera theme and with a singer that tries, but ultimately doesn't manage to sound as imposing as he’d like to be…
 
The production is pretty good, for an “inside” job, but it doesn’t avoid having drums that sound “plastic”, only in their case the more mechanical sound is not that much of an issue with their “tech/sci-fi” themes. The problem is that in making the album, entirely as they wanted the band, seems to turn self-indulgent, producing some songs such as the almost eleven minute “The Abomination” with its quite fitting title or the somewhat disjointed, yet somehow still enjoyable, fourteen plus minute “The New Beginning”… among the rest, the title track and the latter half of “Behind the Belt of Orion” are not bad, but the band hardly manages to deliver one “whole” and thoroughly interesting song… while I wholeheartedly applaud their decision to not be too obvious in their “progressive” attempt. The final result is somewhat lacking and could easily be upped on multiple sectors…