Coma – Excess (2010)

Hailing from Poland, today we have Coma, a band that has ‘dominated’ the scene in their home country and now it’s trying to make their way through the very crowded and highly competitive world-wide market. The band plays a perfect blend of rock with progressive elements and some hints of Metal. “Excess” is a re-recorded version (in English) of their best album, and you can clearly hear that with the quality of the songs presented in this release.

In an emotional rollercoaster, “Excess” takes the listener through many different moods and a wide variety of different elements fused together to create a near perfect release that will surely put the band in the world wide map. Being formed in 1998, the band has had enough time to craft their sound and be comfortable with it, the musicianship of this release shows that Coma is here to stay and that people should take note of them.

Opening this release with the album-titled song, Coma quickly makes an impression, and while this song sounds a bit more ‘alternative rock’ than other songs of the album, we are quickly treated to charismatic vocals that are very versatile through the album. The music in this song is a bit slower paced, but just right to be a perfect chill out song and showcase the band’s song writing abilities.

The guitar work through “Excess” is very well crafted, weaving from hard-hitting rock riffs to more progressive/post-rock arrangements in songs like “T.B.T.R” and “Eckhart”. The band’s guitar players are very good at creating catchy tunes and effective riffs that will stick to your head for days. The combination of ‘faster paced’ songs with melancholic tunes is excellently done, never sounding weird or putting off the listener, creating a very free-flowing release.

Vocal wise, Coma has a very charismatic singer that gives the band an extremely versatile performance. The vocalists range is quite impressive and he completely nails the more emotional side of thing, while his screams are not that good, but solid enough to not become an inconvenience when listening to this album. If you want to compare it to somebody, just think of less whiny version of Serj Tankian mixed with an actually good singer.

The overall music of Coma is very diverse, while we get some ‘fun’ songs like “F.T.P” and “Excess”, we prefer the ‘deeper’ and better constructed tracks that feature more progressive elements. Tracks like “T.B.T.R”, “Eckhart”, “Afternoons in the Colour of Yellow”, and “F.T.M.O” really steal the show and showcase a band that is very experienced in crafting songs that will draw the listener out of their reality and transport them into a hypnotic state.

In general, we think that “Excess” is a great release that will surely get Coma noticed in the world stage. The band has a very mature sound that will appeal to a very broad audience, and it doesn’t hurt that all songs are actually very good. If you are looking for something that is not completely Metal but it’s very enjoyable and well constructed, then get “Excess”, you will not regret it one bit.

Release: October 12th, 2010

Country: Poland