Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion

Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion - 4.5/5

Ah, the peace and quiet when idiotic Prog fans don’t roar and stuff albums down your throat like the second coming of Images And Words- strike that, even that album pales in front of the gems produced by the mightier bands. But here now, why are we speaking on Progressive? This album or this project has nothing whatsoever to do with that genre save that it have two of the biggest artists from it. Oh so that peace and quiet is really just shock from those idiots? Delightful.

On a serious note though, this album reaches every bit the pinnacle of quality that was expected from the combined talents of Akerfeldt and Wilson, so where does this album shock the ardent Prog fans, well it is not progressive at all. What we are treated to instead are delightful mixes of ambient, electronic and acoustic passages combined with the songwriting genius of the two. It’s not as strange a combination as the fan boys seem to think it is, in fact given their experimentation tendencies (which has been abundantly displayed by both Mikael and Wilson in their bands’ works) this is perfectly befitting of them.

There’s not much to describe in this album sound wise, the most simplistic of music played with the most depth is the best way to describe it. A passage of the keyboard with the violin whilst Wilson’s gentle voice relaxes the listener and yet builds up their imagination, the guitar slowly strumming away whilst the choir builds up a dark climax, all examples of the mystique that this work possesses. Folk interludes, vocal choirs, baroque and rock itself all seems to have found a place in this mesh of sound. The difference with these masters is that instead of creating a tangled mess, they’ve transformed that mesh into a fine woven web; the listener is wrapped at all times but never feels stuck or trapped.

The trump card of the album is the subject matter and the atmosphere itself which is directed well by the songwriting, again another testament to the skill these two possess. Even with the simplest of sounds, the album manages to conjure up a strong picture of what is going on in the song. There is always a dark, twisted feel to the music, not heavy in sense of Metal but eerie and haunting all the same. And yet even with that twisted feel, both musicians do a fine job of capturing the emotions of the listener with fine climaxes spaced out in the songs.

All in all, this duo lives up to the hype that was expected of them contrary to the view of the majority of the fans who feel hard done that a massive wall of Metal and Prog rock was not thrown their way by these two, I suppose they thought Akerfeldt would make up for trolling them with Heritage. In any case, a fine work and definitely one of the highlights for the year, enough said.