Spirit Bomb
Tight

The guy behind the band Spirit Bomb is an illustrator, and it is claimed that the band is looking to combine visual impressions with the music. It is not something that is commonly done, perhaps because it is difficult to combine music and visuals in a convincing manner. I can only think of one band that has successfully done it, and that is Pink Floyd with The Wall. Then there are some that have succeeded really well in the conceptual aspect. Spirit Bomb doesn’t really do an album through a concept and they release the music well before actually giving us any of the visuals I read about, why is that?

The only visual I get to see is that cover, it is pretty striking with a fairly interesting take on a common subject. It is a fairly successful cover. The album itself is modern metal or rock where they blend elements of hard rock, classic rock, pop, metal and rap into something that sounds quite inspired by the likes of Rage Against the Machine. I was really expecting something more artistic, this sounds pretty much like ordinary music, kind of an attempt at modern commercial hard rock. I don’t really see how the visual elements would add something, the music is what it is. And if the look to release a comic later it is probably better accompanied by something else. I actually came to think of a successful comic-book album concept, Transitus by Ayreon – this is nowhere near that level of quality.

I can’t say that this release is exciting in any way that matters, they blend some styles and that is positive of course but they don’t really make this blend into something great. There are some upsides, but mostly this album ends up feeling pretty drab. Perhaps it is just a little disappointment that an apparently interesting concept ends up as unremarkable as most albums released these days, or perhaps it is something else. It is not a great album whichever way I look at it, no amount of visual greatness can really change that.

If you are looking for something modern and fresh you should really look elsewhere, this album has its positive aspects and it isn’t bad. But some positives and not being bad is not really a great selling point, I think there are just so many albums that are so much more interesting than this one and would recommend going for anyone of those before this one.

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