Final Coil: Persistence Of Memory

Arriving in mid-2017 Persistence Of Memory is the debut album from British outfit Final Coil, where a blend of Tool and a more straight up progressive edge runs headlong into an Alice In Chains meets Nirvana grind of grunge. With the vocals from Phil Stiles mainly pulling from the Layne Stayley school of long clean notes, it’s the latter aspect of the band’s sound that really comes to the fore, the feeling that underneath all of the more meandering moments in this bands armoury is a barrage of plaid shirts and earnest intentions. It’s a decent combination and yet what undoes a lot of that good work is the propensity of Final Coil to lose sight of the prize, tracks that could be quite effective if revealed as short sharp smacks of angst allowed to bloat into overlong and repetitive outings. Couple that to a decidedly polite production and the inability of Stiles to bring any aggression or crunch to his vocal style and Persistence Of Memory quickly concedes its recall to become an all too easily forgotten experience.

There are only 11 tracks on show, but across those cuts you could easily lop off 20 minutes from this hour long album and immediately improve its impact. “Dying� comes across as the sort of semi-acoustic grunge that Days Of The New used to attempt, while “Alone� does try to expand its horizons through a more pensive and progressive penchant. And to be fair it works, but again the best word to describe what’s going on would be uneventful, and no matter how much time you give this album that’s the ultimate conclusion after every run through. For while everything here is well crafted and the performances themselves are impressive enough, what’s lacking is killer songs, or enough attitude to make up for the shortcomings elsewhere.

That I’m genuinely struggling to pick out highlights in what is a monotone listening experience underlines the central issue here. Final Coil are a talented bunch, but they really need to turn their focus on coming up with some genuinely memorable songs and injecting them with some life. Album number two is under construction… fingers crossed!

Track Listing
1. Corruption
2. Dying
3. Alone
4. You Waste My Time
5. Myopic
6. Failed Light
7. Spider Feet
8. Lost Hope
9. Moths to the Flame
10. In Silent Reproach
11. Alienation

Added: December 2nd 2018
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Persistence Of Memory on bandcamp
Hits: 1173
Language: english

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