I listened a lot of times to this album to have a clear idea of it and that's not because it has a progressive or trail-blazer force behind it but it sounded a bit overweening. STIGMA is a Norway based Rock - I could say - band and this record that will be released in vinyl format only (including the CD version inside it) is the fifth one. The band started around 1999 and Solitude was the name of their debut in 2000. Solitude? Yes I know is the same name with the new one. And allow me to tell you that the name of the third was Live In Solitude. Now, one is that they have to see another human face for some ages or the giving titles is not their highlight.
Now, seriously, this album can be a sequel of the debut one, trying to reach the feeling and the mood of it. By seeing the titles and only you can easily realize that this must be a concept album and you will be right. It concerns with a week in the life of a working class bachelor and in some songs looks that everything goes well but in the majority the vibes are negative and dark.
The music is guitar-based Rock, with Metal passages together with church organs, some choirs that by the way sounds at least horrible and this is a very gentle characterization. Basically - to give you a view of what it's about - think that the day-titled songs are something like melodic instrumental intros, Live As I Die has a folk idea behind and the brutal, Death Metal vocals reminds A LOT of the Tales Of A Thousands Lakes-era of AMORPHIS. Upper Class has a monotonous hypnotic tempo with acoustic guitars but the clean vocals now destroy the whole effect instantly, mainly in the refrain where the un-tuneful voice after some moments becomes really embarrassing. That's sad because the ideas are not bad not only in the music part but in the 'wanted to be' melodies that the vocals could had. The same isolated, 'being in my room and traveling into my world with my mind' feel is present in The End (Of The Road), here with some better effects than in Upper Class but still the song cannot win your attention for long.
Generally, STIGMA has many nice and cool melodies in the album but the need of a more focused point is necessary. Except this and the sometimes annoying and out of space and time vocals I feel that people who enjoyed albums like Be of PAIN OF SALVATION and the comparison is for the plethora of musical faces and not in the quality or on how to agglutinate them, can check their site for further information.