UMUR
"For Moments Never Done" is the 4th full-length studio album by Dutch progressive metal act Cirrha Niva. The album was released through Parnassus Records (Europe) and through The End Records (US/Canada) in September 2009. Cirrha Niva were formed in 1993, and released their debut full-length studio album "The Mirror World Dimension" in 1997. Their last album before "For Moments Never Done" was "Liaison de la Morte" from 2001, so there has been an 8 year recording break between the two albums. There have been quite a few lineup changes from the last album too and the only remaining members from the lineup who recorded "Liaison de la Morte (2001)" are Rob Willemse (guitars) and Tommy White (drums). New members are lead vocalist Legrand (real name Michael de Groot), Carlo Heefer (guitars), and Daniël Huyben (bass).
The music on "For Moments Never Done" is a fairly eclectic type of progressive metal. Eclectic in this case means that the band incorporate elements from alternative metal and a few extreme metal traits too. Legrand is a relatively versatile vocalist and in addition to his relatively high pitched metal singing, he also occasionanlly ventures into semi-growling and other raw type of vocals. It happens very seldom though, and it´s not the dominant vocal styles on the album. Knowing Legrand´s background in various Dutch underground thrash and death metal acts in the 90s his use of those types of vocals aren´t as surprising as it may initially sound. But as mentioned he mostly sings using his clean voice. The alternative metal vibe mentioned above is also something that is only touched upon during the playing time, but I hear nods here and there and especially towards an artist like Faith No More. Again we´re dealing with a minor element of the overall sound, but it goes to show that Cirrha Niva deserves the eclectic tag although they are predominantly a pretty standard progressive metal act. The music can be quite heavy and punchy at times (listen to a track like "Self Chosen"), but also more mellow and atmospheric.
The material on the 7 track, 46:47 minutes long album is generally well written and relatively varied, the musicianship is on a high level, and the sound production is professional, powerful, and well sounding. So "For Moments Never Done" is overall a good quality progressive metal release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.