De Nederlandse versie kun je hier lezen.
Every once in a while, you’ll pass an unknown artist who just sounds great with the few tracks that he has released. One of those artists is the Finnish Jay Ray. In 2014 he released The Great Art of Living, which found its way to my playlist not long after. It has taken a while since then, but he has finally released his debut album, which is called Self Resonance. Does this album live up to the expectations that the single has created?
Successful formula
Self Resonance does indeed resonate well with itself. Many tracks have a high BPM and almost all have a calm bridge in it. It’s a formula that already worked with The Great Art of Living, so why would you change that? Because it’s easy to make all your tracks sound the same and that can sometimes make an album boring or monotonous. It makes Self Resonance good work to bang your head and mosh to, but the tracks that stand out on the album are therefore Striven, Paranormal and title track Self Resonance, because they distinguish themselves through their sound. Striven is a track that I would like to highlight specifically. It is the only track on Self Resonance with a guest artist and that’s no one less than Marko Saaresto from the Finnish band Poets of the Fall. Although the music by Poets of the Fall often seems to me to be a bit too quiet for Marko’s voice, Jay Ray’s heavier work makes him get the most out of it.
Everything or nothing
The reason why many tracks sound a bit the same is not only because these tracks build on the same high tempo in the beat, but also because they all have incorporated a wide range of genres. In some tracks, such as Slave State, the Dubstep influences penetrate a little more than the rest, but they can still be heard in all the other tracks. This also applies to influences of Symphonic Metal, Electrometal and Cinematic Metal: they can be found in every track. This has the advantage that if you have a preference for one of these genres and no specific aversion to the others, you can enjoy any Jay Ray track.
Concluding
With points like this it may sound as if I am very negative about Self Resonance, but nothing is less true. There is no track that I didn’t enjoy to the fullest. For some reason I am just extra critical towards artists that I really enjoy, like Jay Ray.
Score: 7.5/10
Releasedate: 23 September 2017
Label: –
Self Resonance is available for pre-order here.
