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Dioramic

Technicolor

Written by: TL on 06/02/2010 00:05:22

For the past couple of weeks now, I've been spinning the German three piece Dioramic's new album "Technicolor", which came out little over a week ago by the way, and I've been trying to figure out what to think of it, or to make friends with it, so to say. Not an easy task it seems, as these three guys seem hell-bent on making the very most of their three instruments, confusing listeners everywhere and earning them unconventional made-from-scratch labels like prog-hardcore or post-metal.

Little however do genre titles mean, when one has heard the album such as I have, and after God knows how many listens, I think the easiest way to paint a picture of the soundscape here, is to ask you to imagine Muse and The Ocean forming a band, and of course restricting them to play only three instruments. Heavy like a ton of bricks and rhythmically abrasive in one moment, drawn out and darkly atmospheric in the next, with screams that feel a bit like resignation duelling apathetic cleans and monstrous roars for domination of the vocal foreground. On one hand it's like listening to a hardcore band trying to create a sonic impression of the end of the world, while the mellower periods seem to take breaks from the destruction to give the people of the world room to wail about their dismay. If that sounds pretty depressing, it's because it is.

Such music could of course still bring joy into the hearts of listeners, if it turned out to be done in a manner so impressive one could only marvel at the dark art on display. That however, is not my impression of Dioramic I'm afraid. In spite of countless spins, the fact of the matter is that I probably still couldn't tell one song from the other on here, with the exception of the back-to-back tracks "The Antagonist" and "Eluding The Focus", whose mellow periods bring some much missed memorability to the table. Beyond the boundaries of the two though, the listening experience is more akin to exposing ones ears to a rather chaotic, yet monotone aural assault. It's hard to say though, if I feel like that simply because I'm somehow unable to penetrate the depressing moods this disc wraps around me, because greyness and despair seem to be what this disc aims for, despite the colorful title. I guess if you're an experienced appreciator of the more experimental areas of metal and post-hardcore, you'd have an easier time unlocking and enjoying "Technicolor"'s secrets, but for me and most music fans I happen to know, this will ironically sound somewhat too monochrome.

Download: Eluding The Focus, The Antagonist
For The Fans Of: Muse and The Ocean jamming, except restricted to three instruments
Listen: myspace.com/dioramic

Release Date 25.01.2010
Lifeforce Records