Coal & Crayon
World Asleep

Let me just start with explaining the delay of this review which was supposed to have been up a few days ago but thanks to the miracles of Apple computers it wasn’t. I had written a review and then pages decided to crash and that let to the entire computer just freezing and then kernel panic, job undone. Those things kill your inspiration so to speak and the yesterday it was Safari’s turn to ruin everything, no panic this time but still ruining the work. They have been updated to the worst all of Apple’s thing and this despite the worst man in the world being dead for a while now but I guess his legacy still remains. Apple has gone from making good working computers to making crap for idiots who only likes silly gimmicks. I hate Apple. But lets move to Coal & Crayon while Pages works and I can start with saying that they clearly has a good and exciting looking album cover.

This German quintet has just released their debut album, which is this one called World Asleep and they describe themselves as progressive hardrock. That isn’t completely off as the progressive stuff is there with they tempo changes, the exciting melodies and a very clean, solid production. The singer is less than impressive though, sounding like any american rock singer you can imagine. The album’s songs are of decently varied character but the album doesn’t sound very varied due to the production and the vocals that are a bit static which makes the album sound fairly static as well. And this album is a tad long as well with fifty minutes of playing time which can be a bit of a chore to listen through thanks to the rather static character of the album.

It is rather good, I like to listen to this album but at the same time it doesn’t thrill or excite me to do so. The vocals is a major letdown for me, they make the rest seem a bit static. Still, the album is a good listen, especially when having it as background music while writing a review of Coal & Crayon or while doing some work of some other character. Another thing missing (besides an exciting singer) is a strong and distinctive hit song that makes you want to play and hear the album. These things makes this into a typical middle of the scale album that sounds good and is a good listen but doesn’t really leave you with any lasting impression.

The best song on the album is Shipwrecked, the second track and while it is a good song it doesn’t quite impress the way a great hit song does. Not the most inspiring album to write about, there is just not much to say about it. Good album, no more and no less will have to be the logical conclusion when investigating this album.

HHHHHHH