KONTINUUM's second full-length album, "Kyrr", has all the basic components of Rock music. The band describes themselves as "Ambient Rock", and it's easy to see what they mean by that. The general vibe to the album is fairly melancholy, with each track containing vocals that are mixed well into the background so that they are barely audible over the guitars, which themselves are mixed quite loudly and are often played in a minor key. The result is a record that's rife with emotion, even if the majority of it comes through the instruments, rather than the vocals.

The first track "Breathe" immediately identifies the album, with the echoey vocals being sung in English, despite the band being from Iceland. This rule is not stuck to however, as some other tracks such as "Hlidargötu Heimsveldi", are in a different language and therefore will appeal to a different audience. It's a puzzling decision, but the song itself is distinguishable due to a very nice section towards the end when the guitar picks up its pace and almost shreds its way to the outro.

It wouldn't be ridiculous to say that you can get an idea of the sound of the album by imagining a Billy Idol track, but with an injection of Metal. The echoey vocals and production of the album contribute to this, and while it is not necessarily a criticism, it is difficult to shake that idea once it's there. There are times when this is definitely not the case, such as in "Kyrr", when a particularly heavy section kicks in with a riff that's good, but simplistic. Parts like this show promise and make some tracks stand out more, but unfortunately, they seem to occur towards the end of songs, meaning they're over before they really get started.

"Lone" stands out as a good piece of music. Being entirely instrumental, there are no odd vocals to distract, and the track is underpinned by an interesting sound that's hard to identify as either drums or waves. It lives up to its name, encapsulating what loneliness feels like within music.

Other than this, the other standout track is "In Shallow Seas", which straight away kicks off with a hard and heavy intro and doesn't let up until the end.

Overall this is a record that doesn't disappoint, but doesn't really impress much either. With the exception of a few tracks, the album is quite repetitive and very hard to understand lyrically. It's worth listening to the tracks mentioned, but not necessarily as part of the whole collection.<