Soen – Cognitive

Soen has to be of those bands that come out of nowhere and you cannot know what to expect. They actually are a big collaboration of Martin Lopez (formerly known for his works as the drummer of progressive death metallers Opeth), Mr. Steve DiGiorgio on bass (formerly known for many works throughout his almost 30 year and ongoing carrier as the bassist on many bands amongst them being Death, Testament, Sadus and a large back catalog), vocalist Joel Ekelöf (known from his works with his low profile band Willowtree) and the unknown guitarist Kim Platbarzdis (who happens to be quite impressive in here). Many names, many faces and a quite impressive cast? Does it work? Let’s see…

These, the so called, supergroups really never made it that far…Intensions always prove to be more than just a release, but most of those stay to that one meeting and end of story…We cannot know of the future of Soen but the outcome of “Cognitive” their first release, brings out several mixed emotions.

As anyone would simply do…You all want ot know if their back catalogue as musicians has anything to do with the sound of the band. Happily enough, I’m of those that didn’t expect a mixture of Opeth/ Death/ Porcupine Tree under a simple name…Thankfully enough, this is not the case at all…

But still, Soen’s music, although under the name of “progressive sth”, lacks much of originality and surprise. Having a HUGELY TREMENDOUS influence coming from Tool, Soen unfortunately sound more than a tiring version of their main influence. As it seems this big meeting of musicians of individual character and identity, as all of us have been knowning them all these years, seems to be missing something.

Too bad, although, something tells me these guys will make it to the next album…and let’s hope to that next one…