Colobar
Behind the Veil of Oblivion

From beyond the veil of oblivion, which happens to be Bulgaria, comes Colobar which is a project by Angelo Angelov who is writing and producing and doing some instrumentation under the moniker of Colobar. For his help his has some bulgarian musicians and a british singer, the latter is clearly a clever choice considering that bulgarians tends to be less good at the english language than bulgarians and english is the language in which the lyrics are sung. It is the first album by this moniker and it has a decent enough looking album cover and a album name that sounds a bit power metal to me. It has also received very rave reviews around the internet which is always and indication of nothing whatsoever but the comparisons are with bands that I like so it can possibly be something.

It is something progressive, progressive rock or metal in seven compositions that encompass a lot of musical direction much like the progressive genre in general. Some has said that it sounds different and a bit unique while others has said the opposite and I would say that it sounds a bit typical of the progressive rock genre. It is melodic in its foundation and then moves around in that area much like many other progressive rock bands and the addition of jazz, pop and such elements just adds to this feeling of it being a rather typical progressive rock album if there is such a thing. The production is good and so is the band’s performances so the execution is all good and rosy but the songs might be seen a bit like rather typical of the genre so it might just feel like another band for those who go through a lot of progressive rock music.

To me this is a rather good album and I have not much to complain about, but it is a tad bland and I cannot avoid feeling like I have heard it before. I had actually played it more than ten times before even feeling like it made some kind impression on me and yesterday it was so uninspiring that I could not even write this review in english after writing it in Swedish it was difficult to find the correct inspiration to write plain and simple. It is not a bad album in any way as I have already stated that it is good but at the same time it just does not leave any lasting impression, you listen and then you forget it.

A well made album in all regards even if I feel that the songs could have been more than they are and they could have deviated a little from the safe standard progressive rock route because this is what it is. It is a typical progressive rock album, it offers nothing or no ideas that we haven’t already heard from similar bands. This makes this album a but odd as progressive rock or metal is to me about finding new ideas and breaking new musical ground not only copy bands that has done so or make complicated musical phrases just to impress. So I would say that this album is a progressive album that is something as strange as a progressive album that does not progress. In the end I would say that it is a decent album and if you like the progressive vein of progressive rock then you might like this one as well, I think it has merit but there is many similar bands that are much better.

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