Marcel Coenen's most diverse work
Murat Batmaz | Istanbul, Turkey | 03/12/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Marcel Coenen is a monster player. Anyone who's heard Lemur Voice or Sun Caged would acknowledge that. His tremendous sweeping technique, his smooth tone, and his maniacal picking attest to his instrumental prowess. If you heard his first solo album Guitar Talk, an all instrumental piece, you should already know what Marcel Coenen can do with the guitar. Now, his second album is out and it displays a different aspect of this amazing musician.
Colour Journey is without doubt the most diverse album Marcel Coenen has put out. I'll be the first to say the album is no where near as fluid and consistent as the Lemur Voice or Sun Caged stuff, but I've always believed that's what side projects and solo albums are for -- to allow the artists to experiment with ideas that would seem way out of place in their own bands. For a start, Colour Journey features a lot of guest musicians, including the current members of Sun Caged. After the departure of all the four members from the band, I was quite curious how Coenen was going to replace them, all of whom were incredibly talented. So I've paid more attention to the third track "Patron Saint", featuring the band's new singer Paul Villareal on vocals and Roel Van Helden on drums. Though Marcel thinks the song is a logical continuation of the stuff on the debut, I beg to differ. This is a more straightforward song, emphasizing Villareal's vocals in a somewhat ballady track. That said, the opening chords are very mathematical and impressive, but overall, this is a laidback piece with a lot of atmospheric keyboard work. We'll have to wait till they release their second album to form a more solid opinion on the new Sun Caged.
The other songs are quite interesting. "Waiting" features Cloudscape singer Mike Andersson on vocals whose raw yet powerful voice fits the piece like a glove. Marcel's slightly neoclassical playing is heightened with groovy rhythms and climaxes with a perfect duel between guitars and keyboards, just like in the old days with Lemur Voice. The keyboard soloing is awesome and deserves a special mention. "New Race" is also a stab at 80's Yngwie Malmsteen but there are no vocals and the song is filled with occasional thunders of Meshuggah. "That Moment" and "Still Bleeding" are the slower songs, the former featuring the amazing Colleen Gray on vocals. Piano driven, the songs are captured with Marcel's beautiful acoustic guitar tone and light shades of keyboards.
The album also contains some instrumentals. "Abstract Impact" is a Joe Satriani type of piece with various whammy dives and nice guitar effects, whilst "La Bella Mira", perhaps the best track, is a song Marcel wrote to his girlfriend. He delivers the solo with a wonderful array of notes, and his tone is simply out of this world. This may quite possibly be the best instrumental song I've heard from him. "Skill Factor" is shorter but equally impressive. This is jazzy funk with killer bass and drum solos (the drumming is sick!) and once again proves how amazing solo albums can be. I don't think we'd ever hear such playing from Marcel in any of his bands.
The heaviest and most technically demanding song is easily "Traumatized to the Bone", which initially evokes Rob van der Loo's recent solo album Freak Neil Inc - Characters with the Engine of Pain singer. There are four vocalists here, including brutal death growls. The piece is god-heavy recalling Meshuggah's finest moments and is formulated by sick grooves, crushing rhythm guitars, and weird percussion beats circulating in the background. From deep growls to ethereal female vocals and back and forth, this is an approach I'd love to see Marcel experimenting with more in the future. More Meshuggah meets Tandjent style riffage are presented on "The Shrink" (with a guest solo by Urus Raskovski), but it is the singer on "V(erbal) D(efense) M(echanism)" that I'll pick as my personal favourite with his Layne Staley meets Chris Cornell in the early 90's style of singing -- grunge with stomping lead guitar work.
A highly recommended album for fans of rock, metal, funk, and even grunge, all played by one of the most amazing guitarists from Europe."
Return of the Flying Dutch
nienturi | Turkiye | 07/10/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Guitar player of great bands like Lemur Voice and Sun Caged,Marcel Coenen is back with his second solo album. It is obvious that the most important difference between his first solo album "Guitartalk" and this "colour journey" is utalizing vocals. Marcel explains this "I tried to make an album which showed my song writing skills more then my guitar playing skills". We still have precious shred moments, Of course. But not as much as his first. Because of vocals, "colour journey" seems to be more listenable and catchy. Next thing that should be considered is diversity. While you find yourself floating in an deep emotional atmosphere, then you get drowned in brutal vocals and extremly heavy guitars. But for all, there is a whole and so, we can see there is no certain "puzzle" that is constructed or connected syntheticly.
First song "Waiting" is a more power metal orientated song with Mike Andersson from Cloudscape on vocals. Suitable for opening, anyway. Second one "Abstract Impact" is more of a Satriani-like song. Plus, there is very powerful rhythmic structure, more than a Satriani song. Very cool. "Patron Saint" is a song which is in paralel of his bands Sun Caged and Lemur Voice. Has smart with its variants. "La Bella Mira" is the first ballad of "clour journey". Marcel says that he decidated this track to his girl friend. Lucky Girl about this song :) Because, this is very cool track. With its natural structure, anyone can feel relaxed and refreshed. But after this track, there is a monster track. The heaviest track of tha album which is called "Traumatized to the Bone". With this track, we can see his roots for extreme metal. It can be heard some tones and inspirations like Nevermore, Pantera and Meshuggah. Especially at the begining, guitars are very great. Besides, i really really like the voice of Joyce Dijkgraaf of Elleanore. Very sweet. I should add there are 4 different singers in this song ranging from a female voice to death metalish brutal vocals. "Skill Factor", truely is a hi-quality fusion track with its funky rhythms. In additon, bass and drum performances are impressive."That Moment" holds and get anyone float in dreams. "The Shrink" is the only song from the album he has not written. It has written by Hans In T Zandt and a guitar player while he was in America. With its attractive entering riff, i find "Verbal Defense Mechanism" extremely average. In my point of view, bottom levels of the "colour journey". "New Race" is my favourite track for the album. Normally, i dont like the songs like this typical power metal-ish shred tracks. Cliche, i find them mostly. But i really liked this one. Only production of this song couldnt satisfied me fully. The last song on the album "Still Bleeding" is an atmospheric song with female vocals, being a little gothic inspired. It reminded me "The Gathering" somehow within this song. Good choice for the ending.
If we consider the whole, we can realize very smart and nice album. I especailly like the addition of female vocals. Production might be a little more powerful, i think. I found "weak" the track called "New Race" particularly. Having much "heavier" guitars might be more suitable for it, in my opinion. However, i dont believe that "Colour Journey" is not the right ticket for Marcel Coenen to be known for huger masses."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1