The Pax CeciliaThis quintet that performs progressive experimental/metal/rock, comes out of Brookville, PA, and were once upon a time called The Autumn Wind Thesis. Their first album, which I wasn't really terribly into but something happened when they changed their name to The Pax Cecilia. Their first album "Nouveau" really captured me. The dynamics, the swelling of the volume, the clean passages, the metal influenced riffing all were juxtaposed flawlessly and the songs seamlessly melted together as if they were one. I'm pretty sure the album was conceived through one big concept, and when reading the lyrics and the way they broke the song listing down into acts it seems that way.
Again these guys have grown as musicians. I must say I enjoyed the dynamic shifts from clean passages to overt metal leanings a bit more on their previous release. While they are still there, they are less frequent. The song "the progress", which opens with a straight up metal riff, harkens back to the days of "Nouveau" while songs like the opening track, "the tragedy", shows the band going into a much more epic direction with more emphasis on clean, fluid passages. I will say though, it seems more natural and organic because it seems less contrived. Also while there's still the screamed vocals, they make a lot more room for exceptionally well done singing parts. Like last time, the band has enlisted the services of many excellent musicians: The Canzonetta Trio who add additional string sections, William Agent James on the trombone, D. James Goodwin on mixing board and vocals and a slew of additional vocal performers.
There are 8 songs that total over 60 minutes of music, well over the standard for a full length nowadays. If I remember correctly, the longest song on their previous album was 8 minutes. This time around two songs break the 10 minute mark with others coming close to the 8 minute mark, with the occasional track that only breaks 4 minutes.
These guys are definitely a concept driven band that really loves to read about ancient history, with their focus being mostly on the Roman Empire. Instead of following a set of acts, this time they follow "the". Every song starts with the, "the tragedy", "the wasteland", "the machine". Now I don't want to go out of bounds with this one but it seems through the lyrics that the band is stating some kind of war between Earth (Pagan) and God (Christian) or that God as we know it is failing us and only mother nature can save our planet.
"the Machine--" "on that peak we have caged god in the glory of our gears and a song rings out for the death at hand for gods do not progress and a machine can not rejoice that which can not die can not progress"
"the Hymn"--"and so, our reunion is across this, a great, dry, golden place, and, seeing that no man saves our souls, save for those we truly know, we look, with our mother's eyes to each other, because we have seen that only her tears could bring life here again." (In the previous song, "the water song" it talks about how the oceans have dried)
Never heard of the studio these guys recorded at but boy did they do a wonderful job. I had very few problems with the recording last time around and even less this time. The dynamics of the songs and the swells of the volume are handled nicely. Each guitar note rings out in absolute clarity. The bass has the presence needed to be heard and a very nice tone. The injection of the various other performers were done exceptionally well. The vocals are on the money. And the drum work is so clean and warm that you can hear every crash of the cymbals and every blow to the snare.
Whenever I receive a package from these guys I am amazed. First off, their layouts and execution rival that of big labels and bands that charge anywhere from $8-15 an album and the crazy thing is these guys have released three full lengths and haven't charged anyone a penny. Last time when I received "Nouveau" I received a lush digipack with a khaki patch. This time they went even more all out; the album came in a box decorated with the band logo along with a card thanking you for requesting the album and a cool poster printed on thick paper. How they do it I'll never know.
Now about the album being discussed. The illustrations of owls nested together, surrounding a geese with a noose around it's neck are printed with black ink over a brown chipboard digipack. The booklet that accompanies the album is printed on the same paper and uses the same ink as the poster. Each page displays a different song with a different visual to convey the feeling of the song. Some songs are easy on the eyes others you really have to want to read, so luckily if you want you can read the lyrics at the bands site. My one complaint with the layout is that they didn't print their name and album title anywhere on the cover of the album. The spine would've been nice because it wouldn't have detracted from the artwork itself.
Rating: 4/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: The Tragedy and The Progress
Synopsis: I enjoyed "Nouveau" more but that isn't to say that this isn't one hell of a release because it has been garnering many spins from me. I'm sure many people will like this more than their previous album because it seems more smooth. It would be a shame if people pass this band off as artsy and pretentious because that couldn't be further from the truth. These guys seem very genuine, and down to earth. I would recommend you check out their website http://www.ThePaxCecilia.com and pick up a free copy of this, but please do contribute some donations because these guys deserve it, if not just to keep their aspirations of making music alive.