KINETIC from the Danish port city of Kolding, according to the promo text, aim to create music that goes beyond conventions – both musically and conceptually. The debut EP „Sentience“, released last year, already included the opener and the closer of „Liminal“ and offered lightweight, but at times definitely listenable prog metal. Can the album at hand take things up a notch?
Let’s put it this way: it’s still a mixed bag. KINETIC definitely have talent. On a technical level, all members have full command of their craft and don’t make any slip-ups in that respect – but the shallowness that already left the EP looking average in terms of quality has, overall, actually increased. On top of that, there is an exciting lyrical concept revolving around outer space and human existence, but unfortunately the musical implementation of it remains superficial.
With a running time of over 100 minutes, „Liminal“ technically offers a lot of what the prog rock/metal heart desires, but unfortunately no memorable melodies. The songs just drift along and remain mostly unspectacular. Only rarely do the calm, dreamy parts produce “aha” moments that make you sit up and take notice, and the heavier passages generally suffer from too little “punch”. By contrast, René Hougaard’s vocals score points with a pleasant timbre, and the occasionally rougher singing („Beginnings“, „Fermi“, „Omega“) is convincing as well.
Every now and then, though, your eyebrows do go up: either when Marcus Levin lets his synths come through more prominently and the musical atmosphere approaches the lyrical concept (which unfortunately happens far too rarely), or when KINETIC break out of the uniform overall sound a bit and step on the gas („Fermi“, „Progress To One“) – unfortunately, however, this regularly ends up feeling piecemeal, and the exciting passages are replaced far too quickly by the next ordinary part.
KINETIC definitely have the potential for more – but their full-length debut has to get by without any highlights, so overall it only ends up with an average rating. A recommendation can mainly be given for fans of sprawling prog who also have no problem being entertained for minutes on end by rather easily digestible material.
Wertung: 5 / 10
