Cold War of Solipsism – Art of Illusion – Progressive Metal – Poland
One of the Progressive Rock (Prog Rock) albums that I have been enjoying over the last several weeks is Cold War of Solipsism from Art of Illusion.
One of the aspects I love about Prog Rock is that it is a world-wide genre. Prog Bands come from it seems almost every country in the world. And an example is Art of Illusion who hail from Poland that hotbed of Prog Poland ( no sarcasm intended).
While the band formed in 2002, they didn’t release their first album Round Square of The Triangle until 2014. Cold War of Solipsism released this year is only their sophomore effort. Now I often say I like to read books that teach me something. Well, how about an album that teaches me something! As I started to write this post, I thought – What the hell is Solipsism? So I was off to Wikipedia where I discovered…….
Solipsism (/ˈsɒlɪpsɪzəm/ (About this sound listen); from Latin solus, meaning ‘alone’, and ipse, meaning ‘self’)[1] is the philosophical idea that only one’s own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one’s own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. Now if I had a copy of the songs lyrics, I could probably see how the songs relate to Solipsism. However, I don’t and usually can’t understand Prog lyrics so I will have to assume they do and just enjoy the music!!
About Art of Illusion
The band calls Bydgoszcz in Poland home and performs complex progrock compositions combined with sharper heavy metal sound. The core of the band is the four outstanding instrumentalists. As a result, their music contains many virtuoso solos, heavy guitar riffs and piano. And there is a bunch of each on Cold War of Solipsism.
The one thing their music is not is boring as there are many changes of moods, tempo and rhythms throughout the album. The band has had several different vocalists, during the life of the band. However, Marcin Walczak has handle the vocals on both albums. Here is the musician lineup for Cold War of Solipsism …
Marcin Walczak – vocal, choirs
Filip Wiśniewski – guitars
Paweł Łapuć – keyboards, piano
Mateusz Wiśniewski – bass
Kamil Kluczyński – drums, choirs
Bottom Line
Cold War of Solipsism is definitely a four-star album for me. I enjoyed the music throughout the album. I particularly enjoyed the guitar. But there were times when I enjoyed the drumming or the keys. All around it’s a solid album.
Among the Related Artists listed by Spotify on Art of Illusion’s overview page are: Day Six and The Black Noodle Project. I enjoy the music of both of those bands. So if you like them, too. Check out Art of Illusion.
Links for Further Exploration of the Music of Art of Illusion
Facebook
Instagram
Progarchives
Bandcamp
Here is the Official Video for Allegoric Fake Entity from Cold War of Solipsism.
