COMMUNIC is a trio from Kristiansand, Norway that has been around since 2003. "The Bottom Deep", is their new studio effort and forth release. Before I'll start my review I must say the Progressive Metal is one of those styles of music that over the years has grown and changed while many bands that were not similar in their musical style were often put together on the same category without really having that much in common with the subgenre.

COMMUNIC plays complex modern Metal, and the thing is that today almost all modern bands play complex rhythms and harmonies with even odd times signatures. However, to recognize a band as of the Progressive kind you need to have more. In a way I think that COMMUNIC kind of has it. Oddleif Stensland's vocals sound like a mix of John Oliva and Geoff Tate.The vocals lines were really great and fitted the songs. The guitars sounded equally good but I think that as most singer/players one of the two always gets a little on the side and that's the case with the guitar parts in here. Even though those were of true worth, I believe those could have been much better. The rhythm section was amazing and turned up well in the groove of the songs.

"The Bottom Deep" is very modern and is full of groove al'a PANTERA and LAMB OF GOD but with a Progressive twist that lasted by the odd time signatures of a great, but strange, harmonic lines. I especially liked the title song "The Bottom End", a very short but an epic song, with a great folk feel and an excellent vocal line followed by harmonies. I also liked "Voyage Of Discovery" a lot, the drumming on that one was simply impressive. Production wise, the work done here was a good one, great sound and great musical production.

The thing I didn't like about the album is that it's a little over played. Sometimes, and I say this as a Progressive Metal fan, the songs got me tired, and even though those weren't too long, some of them sounded like they're longer because of major lacks of being fluent. In Overall, the album is good, and if you're into modern Progressive kind of Metal you might like this one.