01. Mind Diary
02. Darkest Legacy
03. Cloak & Daggers
04. Pain in Blood
05. The Silence Within
06. One Silent Moment
07. Alogoas
08. Static
09. Fragile
10. Eyes of Jealousy
11. Ritual of the Blade
12. Justice
Year: 2008
Label: Goldencore/Roastinghouse Records
After changing the label Cloudscape recorded it’s third album. And I
have to admit it’s the most mature and well thought-out release they
have issued so far. As for the style „Global Drama” follows the path
chosen by the band members before.
Extensive, multi-layered tracks, frequent changes of pace– these are elements characteristic to the tracks incuded on this cd.
Fast, heavy riffs, low sound of rhytmic guitars seemingly are in
contrast to the melodic solos and cachy melodies of chorus. All these
elements build up an interesting overall impression.
Cloudscape do not have any fulltime keyboard player. Keybords parts are
played by the vocalist of the band: Mike Andersson and guitarist Bjorn
Eliasson and just like other instrumental parts they are at a high
level. The band don’t make the listener feel lack of keyboardplayer
onboard. Cause 'there are a lot of main motives played on keyboards.. In
times when it’s hard to find progressive arts even in prog metal, there
are some in Cloudscapes music for sure. We can find oriental motives
(sitar and characteristic wailing vocals in „Cloack and Daggers”), pipes
(„One Silent Moment”) and of course a lot of sounds of keyboards
characteristic to progressive music.
As for influences and similaries with other albums, as far as vocal
experiments are concerned they’re distorted, voice is rought and
hoarse and also guitar riffs they’re reminiscent of the latest
recordings by Evergrey or Symhony X (especially in „Paid in Blood”).
However, this is nothing more than just a fleeting impression that the
atmosphere permeating the album is similar rather than a thought that
it’s a conscious borrowing.
At a first hearing of the album it may seem that it’s easy to uderstand.
Howewer, having finished listening for the first time, it turns out
that to embrace all these complex compositions you need to listen to it
again and again. So, perfect, balance between cachy melodies and complex
structures, should be enough to draw you into listening to this album
for a number of times. I can listen to „Global Drama” many times in a
row without feeling bored.
You can have a look at Mattias’ Noren artworks both in the cover and
the booklet. This gives you double joy. First of all, images illustrate
perfectly the music and have an influence on the perception of the
atmosphere and secondly Noren announced more than half a year ago that
he quits making the covers.
As I mentioned at the beginning, „Global Drama” is the most mature album
in Cloudscape’s discography, and it is in my opinion the most
progressive record in their career.
Will that help Cloudscape reach the top positions at the metal charts?
There is hard competition this year, but with an album as good as this
one Swedes can fight with raised foreheads.
9/10
Piotr Spyra
