Lost in Time: Communic – Waves of Visual Decay

Artwork by: Anthony Clarkson

Style: Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Thrash Metal (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Nevermore, Fates Warning
Country: Norway
Release date: 19 May 2006

High school tends to be a prickly subject for some people, and understandably so. In that four-year stretch as we transition from awkward teenagers to less-awkward (hopefully) young adults, there’s a lot of expectations, not to mention uncertainties, packed alongside the textbooks in that JanSport; a lot of bullies yet to lose their hairlines and begin their HVAC careers. Fortunately, my experience was largely devoid of any real tumult—despite being a forward-facing Goth kid, Tripp pants and all, I was left alone by the usual antagonists, even accepted across more than a few social spectrums. And so my primary memories regarding high school tend to focus on the music and albums imprinted on me from that time. The Fury of Our Maker’s Hand (DevilDriver), Swampsong (Kalmah), The Odyssey (Symphony X), Shadow Zone (Static-X); these and more have remained locked-and-loaded within my consciousness, cherished sounds I return to fondly even as my tastes have shifted across the decades.

Chief among this pantheon of perseverance sits Norwegian power trio Communic’s sophomore effort, Waves of Visual Decay—an absolute powerhouse offering of forward-moving progressive metal that bends, winds, and thrashes across seven songs (and two bonus cuts). Consisting of Oddleif Stensland (guitars, vocals), Erik Mortensen (bass), and Tor Atle Andersen (drums), Communic had exactly the right amount of cooks in the kitchen when they whipped up Waves of Visual Decay. I remember being enraptured by the gray melancholia of “Frozen Asleep in the Park”; “Fooled by the Serpent’s” sci-fi take on the story of Genesis; and the thrashing aggression of “My Bleeding Victim.” How three men could create music with such heft and power, my teenaged mind could hardly comprehend.

Nearly twenty years since that first fateful listen, and Waves of Visual Decay has lost none of its luster, nor have once-cherished songs revealed any secret flaws to my time-weathered powers of perception. Communic’s breed of prog was a drastically different turn from the alien dark of Tool or Symphony X’s neoclassical wizardry, and it hit out at me directly through the baroque musculature of “Frozen Asleep in the Park,” with its tragic story of an elderly woman’s death and the callousness capable within family and society alike. Stensland’s vocals operate as a theatrical storyteller, at once grounded in the grit and grime of this cold-snap city, only to soar into stratospheric heights to punctuate the song’s biggest moments. The use of police sirens during the bridge to punctuate a brief silence is a moment that has stuck with me for decades: a gorgeous little burst of mood-setting. Andersen’s rolling kitwork patterned against Stensland’s searching guitar that opens the title track is another, blending into a sort of philosophical ballad that nonetheless refuses to sacrifice the metallic heft and thrash aggro that is hard-coded into the record.

Despite each track existing outside of any overarching narrative, there’s a throughline of emotionality which cuts across the entirety of Waves of Visual Decay, like a monofilament blade through military-grade plate steel. Led by Stensland’s powerhouse vocals, accentuated by the emotive drillwork of his guitar, and bolstered by the militant clashing of Andersen’s drumming and Mortensen’s rumbling bass, the Norwegian metallers really put the “power” in power trio. The band’s ability to shift from screeching thunderstrike thrash to contemplative prog and atmospheric mood builders is jaw-droppingly cool all these years later, and how the instruments bend around and support the at-times odd vocal rhythms has done nothing to lose my favor. Waves of Visual Decay is big and punchy and so very alive in all the ways I want from this genre: darkly dramatic and blisteringly bombastic in equal measure, yet never giving way to cheesy excess or maudlin prog wonkery.

There’s always that fear when returning to a beloved classic, whether that’s an album, movie, game, et cetera: What if I’ve remembered it wrong? What if my present accumulation of experiences ends up crushing my feathery expectations of this past? We’re hardly static creatures, after all. Our tastes ebb and flow and evolve, sometimes creating so much distance between who we were and who we are now that there’s no bridge long enough to span the gap. Landmarks, once gleaming and exciting, have been eroded and dulled by time. Thankfully, Waves of Visual Decay proved itself immutable to such excoriating forces. Not only that, but Communic have, in my estimation, crafted what feels like a timeless work. None of the album’s style or substance feels particularly indebted to the mid-aughts, nor does it feel diminished in the light of more modern acts. An energetic and confident slab of progressive metal, Waves of Visual Decay is as worthy of your attention now as it was twenty years ago.

Recommended tracks: Frozen Asleep in the Park, Watching It All Disappear, Fooled by the Serpent, My Bleeding Victim, At Dewey Prime
You may also like: Psychotic Waltz, Anubis Gate, Witherfall, Redemption

Related links: Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives

Label: Nuclear Blast Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Communic is:
– Erik Mortensen (bass)
– Tor Atle Andersen (drums)
– Oddleif Stensland (guitars, vocals)
With guests:
– Endre Kirkesola (keyboards)