This 1994 album was way ahead of it's time. After this they began to lean more into a goth direction so this is the last death metal album. Even then it stretches the definition of death with more melody and atmospherics and sonic colors than sheer pummelling. For the purpose of this review I am not going into the "songs" like " 25th Floor" which are more interludes of cinematic weirdness for the sake of doing drugs , it what I am going to guess as I was doing a shit ton of them when I first got this album. There is some great guitar playing on the more Pink Floyd like "Gaia". "Visonaire" finds his voice taking on a more forcful tone , but not as much of a growl as he had the first two songs, it is almost like a metal version of Psychic TV.
Sung vocals come into play for "Do You Dream of Me" . I am not big on guitar solos. If they happen in a way that adds to the song they sometimes catch my ear. If they do so then it is normally something impressive. The guitar solos on this album are impressive. They are fleet of finger , yet not shredding for no reason. It compliments the song. The new age instrumental " Planets" is almost a song, but it floats off and is more of an interlude . The Psychic TV moments are not over . The more hushed spoken vocals of 'A Pocket Sized Sun" carry over that mood. Only half the album is heavy, the other half is really high.
This is a great album, I will give it a 9.5 , but it is however not a great death metal album and I might be forced to dig further back into the band's cataloge to find when they were a great death metal band. I can probaly just go back two years previous previous to "Clouds" as I would not want to sacrafice too much of their more experimental dreams moments.
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