Sonus Umbra: Spiritual Vertigo

Having heard their earlier offering called Snapshots From Limbo, I was looking forward to their new release with some enthusiasm. Sonus Umbra have now released their third album and feature the typical array of guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals with varying degrees of ability, technical prowess and memorability.

I have to admire these guys for trying to get everything properly in place but grimace when they get it wrong. Their opening track reminded me slightly of the 70's band called "Home" where their guitar strumming seems to emulate the sound without plagiarizing the original technique. While "Bone Machines" doesn't contain anything amiss, their second track, "Fool's Arcadia" suffers from trying to make the words fit to the allotted time and while the song has its high points, the vocals do let it down a tad. You just can't make a square peg fit in a round hole unless you manipulate and distort it. When you distort it too far out of place, things get to sound clumsy. Originally hailing from Mexico and not singing in their own tongue also makes it a bit hard to award top marks when there are those occasional timing imbalances. Having said that, however, this is still a great track musically and is perhaps my second favourite song on the album.

Their 3rd track starts off with some nice acoustic guitar and gradually builds to embrace some tasty lead work right out of the Hackett School of guitar embellishments. Nice track but nothing outstanding or memorable!

"Self Erosion" offers what is probably the most accessible song on the album but still fails to introduce anything truly memorable. An all too brief synth run gives a hint of what talent lies within, but when it's all over, you realize it never got going too far in the first place.

"Pax Americana" will have the Johnny Carson fans among you crying out to see more of "Johnny" with it's typical stab at trying to take the piss out of all that is wrong with America. "Pax Israelica" is the heaviest song on the album and reminded me of the sort of thing that bands like Leger de Main might write, although with less of a female vibe.

"Timequake is to my ears the best song on the album and although I can hear a slight influence from another band, I just can't put my finger on it. The last 2 tracks fill out the album to clock in at a total of just over an hours worth of reasonably solid music. It is not until "Rust In My Sleep" that one realizes how good the female singer really is and perhaps on future albums her prominence in the vocal department might escalate this bands chances in the grand scheme of things. I certainly prefer her voice a lot more.

This is another example of a band whose influences and direction are worn on both sleeves. They seem to be trying to grab something from the past, something from the present and offer something for the future. There are snippets of classic prog, some neo tendencies here and there and some clever musically mature pieces that are straight out of music school.

Overall, I would love to give this album a higher score but simply can't as it would fail to do justice to those albums that were significantly better. This is a decent effort but is not without its weaknesses. I still prefer their second album but also look forward to the re-release of their debut as I understand plans are under way to have it remastered shortly.

Track Listings:
1. Bone Machines (5.56)
2. Fool's Arcadia (8.40)
3. Man Of Anger & Light (4.18)
4. Fascinoma (7.10)
5. Self Erosion (6.03)
6. Amnesia Junkies Part 1 (Pax Americana) (4.19)
7. Amnesia Junkies Part 2 (Pax Israelica) (3.42)
8. Timequake (5.31)
9. Rust In My Sleep (3.31)
10. Snakes & Ladders (10.58)

Added: March 9th 2005
Reviewer: Greg Cummins
Score:
Related Link: Sonus Umbra Web Site
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Language: english

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