Pinkroom is a brand new progressive rock band out of Poland. I‘m that conjures up thoughts of them being a clone to bands like Riverside. I will quickly dismiss that notion while saying there’s some similarities with Riverside as well as Porcupine Tree, Tool and at times, even Opeth.
On the debut album, Psychosolstice, the band consists of Mariusz Bonieki (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, samples), Marcin Kledzik (drums, percussion, lyrics) and Kacper Ostrowski (bass). It would appear that Kacper is listed as a former member on their MySpace page.
“Path Of Dying Truth” (7:19) opens the album in grand style with laidback vocals and atmospheric keyboards and samplings. Here’s where the Opeth influence comes from. This can be counted as one of my favorites of this album. It flows perfectly from beginning to end.
“Buried Hopes” (3:53) has a very progressive sound with constant changes until the vocals kick in. The dirty guitar sound reminds me a lot of what Steven Wilson does on Porcupine Tree and his solo album.
“Dispersion” (5:23) reminds me a lot of Porcupine Tree’s melodic side combined with some dreamy vocals. A very atmospheric and hypnotic song.
“Quietus” (5:29) begins with an 80’s Crimson tribal beat that keeps adding in new sounds. There’s some samplings that add to the atmosphere created by the vocals and keyboards. The 80’s Crimson vibe returns one more time before morphing into something quite original sounding.
“2am” (6:26) is an instrumental that opens up with a spacey and very similarities to the psychedelic and experimental era of Pink Floyd.
Next up is “Curse” (7:42) that kicks up the volume with a rather aggressive ripping guitar parts and an infectious vocal pattern. Another of my favorites of the album.
“Moodroom v.2” (4:36) again brings forth an 80’s Crimson vibe adding horns that remind me of early 70’s Crimson. A very interesting and uniquely sounding instrumental.
“Stonegarden” (6:46) opens with a very industrial droning percussion sound with some keyboards woven in. Then it lets loose with some aggressive guitar parts around the 3:30 mark. There’s some nods to Porcupine Tree on this song.
“Days Which Should Not Be” (6:24) starts off with an aggressive guitar sound that eases into some psychedelic vocals woven in with a nice infectious beat. Again some nods to Porcupine Tree here and something I never thought I’d hear…. Voivod vibe from their Dimension Hatross era. Another favorite of mine.
Closing off this amazing album is the acoustic based song called “Recognized” (2:40) which reminds me a lot of one of Steven Wilson’s bands, Blackfield. There’s a lot of electronics on this song.
So in closing, this is by far one of the most unique and amazing debuts that came out of 2009. Had I reviewed it then, I’d easily say it was one of the best of that year. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned bands, you’ll need to get a hold of Psychosolstice ASAP! Highly recommended without any doubt!
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on October 26th, 2010
