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Album Reviews : Modern Day Babylon – Coma

By on March 7, 2018

If you love progressive heavy music, and more specifically djenty progressive and instrumental music, there is a veritable smorgasbord of fabulous releases from excellent bands coming out at regular intervals (pun intended) across the course of any given year. And already 2018 is no different. Modern Day Babylon’s newie is an absolute ripper.

These Czech lads have been around for a while, have brought out a number of high-quality releases and just seem to keep betting better and better. Coma is their best release to date, and that’s saying something.

The technical virtuosity on display here is truly something to behold. But that’s pretty much a gimme, where this style of music is concerned. It’s virtually impossible to create this type of music and not be a world-class musician and songwriter. What makes this band’s stuff so joyous is the sense of fun that comes across when you listen. It has a happy bounce, a sweet lilt to it that puts a smile on your face from end to end, and that provides a welcome contrast to the dark aggression that often comes with this sub-genre (which of course, I love too).

Check out Waves for proof, it is truly uplifting, and gives the listener a wash of good vibes and positive endorphins. Closer Wake Up also sounds like the closing credits music of some big budget, action-packed road movie.

Overall, this album is just about the ideal juxtaposition of melody, ambience, exultant tones and blinding technical wizardry. These guys have that rare and uncanny knack for showing off their ridiculous chops whilst simultaneously serving the song and creating tunes that are cohesive and memorable.

This is an inappropriately titled record, as putting the listener into a coma is the very last thing it will do. It is far more likely to wake you up (again, pun intended), give you positive energy and make you feel alive.

Band: Modern Day Babylon
Album: Coma
Year: 2018
Genre: Progressive Instrumental
Label: Independent
Origin: Czech Republic

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.