SUN CAGED — The Lotus Effect (review)

SUN CAGED — The Lotus Effect album cover

Album · 2011 · Progressive Metal

2/5 · 2012-01-24
Stephen

'The Lotus Effect' is one of the most volatile prog-metal disc I ever heard in 2011. I know several others but the point is, SUN CAGED seems to excite you with a splendid melodic kick, and then bored you instantly with some mediocre tracks, and then push you up to the sky with some nice shred and scream, and torn you to pieces with couple of worst prog-metal tracks I ever heard. That's a huge roller coaster ride but not in an incredibly fun way.

'Seamripper' is a monstrous opening set, with a death metal pattern rolling in, the early part is highly melodic and complex, yet it provides an easy access to the whole song. 'Tip-Toe The Fault Line' is where DREAM THEATER meets PORCUPINE TREE, and check out the solo, it's a madness! And to the next 6 tracks, I'm experiencing a painful journey. 'Shades of Hades' is a torture to my ears, and 'Pareidolized' is only slightly better. 'Reductio Ad Absurdum' is quite boring but kudos to the great singing here.

The only track I can accept is 'On Again/Off Again', but hope soon arise again with 'Parasol', an easy listening type of track but I love the simplicity of it. 'Wave The Banner' is a nice short track, and nothing's really memorable until 'Let It Wash Away', which is a good closer. With a running time of over 70 minutes, you must be a real hardcore fan of this band, or the genre, to really enjoy this album.

I don't think I can stand the whole album in one single spin without taking a break, it's just unbearable, but 'The Lotus Effect' isn't a horrible album at all, some good moments, some listenable tunes, I can avoid some tunes and I'm doin' fine. It's just that I don't see a good reason to grant this any score above 60%, probably even lower.

more than 2 years ago
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SunCadrian wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Hey. cool Warthur, hope you enjoy! And thanks Time Signature. :)

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Both Paul and Stephen have handled this exceptionally well. Kudos to both of them.

Warthur wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm now marginally more likely to take a look at this album simply because I love it when artists (whether they're musicians or movie directors or authors or whatever) can take a step back and accept less-than-adoring reviews in a constructive way. Thanks for being the bigger guy, Paul. :)

Stephen wrote:

more than 2 years ago

hi Paul, I appreciate the comment. I don't need to remind we all here that in this world, there's no single album that can please everybody.

Take a look at Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of The Moon', despite the fact it sold for over 50 million copies and very influential, there are lots of people that hate it, or Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid', many cited is as the founding father of heavy metal yet some people said that Iommi has a childish riffs like a 5 years old and that album is crap.

There are no right or wrong here, music is an art and art cannot be measured by science or math. It involved emotion and people has different emotion hence the various rating on any given album.

I have no hostility toward skrrckr but my two friends here only want to prevent any trolls spamming the site with negative comments on a specific review. We're here as a fan of music, thus whether you like an album or not, you can put it up as a review and not by attacking a person's writing :)

SunCadrian wrote:

more than 2 years ago

(...cont'd) Of course there is always the risk when you attempt to cover a wide range of moods/styles on one album....some people like that kind of ride, others do not. (That said, yes, there are indeed people who quite enjoyed the flow and contours of the entire 70 minute ride--in case you were wondering ;)

Anyway, carry on. I do appreciate you taking the time to review the album. And even though we may have different tastes, I'm sure most of us can agree that the metal (and especially the "prog" community") is small enough as it is, we don't to have reasons to fight amongst ourselves. We need to support original music & live music. (in fact, I'm pretty sure if all of you met at a gig of some third party band, you'd probably all get along. I've noticed that in person, the metal community is actually a bunch of pretty nice guys....and the occasional nice lady thrown in there too, ;)

SunCadrian wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Hey People,

Paul from Sun Caged here. No the other commenter does not represent the band, but yes, *I* do.

I just wanted to clear the air because a simple observation I made wasn't intended to stir up animosity.

I came across the review and it struck me as interesting because some things you mention as your least favorite parts have often been noted as highlights by others. That was all. It was an observation on the diversity of opinions even among metal fans and even among our own fans.

I'm not attacking anyone's opinion, in fact I even pointed out in my post on our page that the comments (and this was before the detailed post by one of our fans) already pointed out what I was noticing. As Stephen said, "If we all like the same thing, then this world can be a boring place to live right ? :)" And I agree, smiley face and all.

Triceratopsoil wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Stephen you aren't allowed to have different tastes than him; new site rule. ;)

Stephen wrote:

more than 2 years ago

i wonder what's wrong with my review, I ain't slappin' this album to the bottom. If you read carefully, i said it's volatile means there are bad tracks, and there are good one, it's not like i said it's a complete shit and just avoid at all cost, although I'm sure there are lots of other people who think that way lol

looks like this guy represents the band, well you have to learn to accept the fact that when you made an album, people will like and dislike it because of a different taste, but a poor review should be treated as a constructive criticism, if the band think its irrelevant, then they can just ignore it, but most of the times, it can help to propel a band to a higher stage.

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Good post Kim. I'd really like this cowardly troll to tell me who the fuck cares what gear was used on an album. Does that influence whether or not the album is worth purchasing?

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Who cares about the gear used on the album? And what's the point of using intricate music terminology when this site is directed at any fan of metal music, and not just musicians. This is not Guitar World or Bass Player. It's not necessary to mention the label, because it's already mentioned in the album entry, and so are the musicians that perform on the album. Nobody mentioned Seether, so your attack on Seether seems irrelevant and uncalled for. And attacking the language mistakes that pop up in the review - that's just low and lazy. That's one of those strategies you see in flame wars on the Internet, when people have no real arguments. So, I think it's pretty fallacious move on your part if you want to actually make a valid point. Why didn't you write a positive review of the album yourself? Attacking this review will not promote the album to the same extent that a positive review would. Also, the reviewer is not wasting anyone's time - you're the one who's wasting your own time.

J-Man wrote:

more than 2 years ago

If you think he's wasting your time, don't read the review. It's as simple as that. Trolling the website is a waste of OUR time as I'm positive nobody enjoys reading angry fanboy rants (...unless you're a band member, in which case your comments are the exact antonym of professionalism).

...and I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds it sketchy that this is your only activity since joining the site...

skrrckr wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Sun Caged made a far more dynamic album than any of their peers since Dream Theater's Awake, and Marcel Coenen is on par with any of the greats out there right now. That being said, I wouldn't call the album reinventing the wheel as much as turbocharging the vehicle. You are entitled to dislike the music, and thats by no means a reason not to review a band but, do the band justice with your words whether they are negative or positive. At least put as much effort into your own work as they did with one of their songs, or don't waste our time.

skrrckr wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Also, if you can't appreciate the diversity of a genre, don't review bands of that genre. You can't attack a prog-metal album for having all the elements of a prog-metal album, along with some new untapped influences previously untouched by their peers. This review is better fitting a band like Seether, which takes no chances and are really does nothing musically that hasn't already been done. There's no mention of any band member names here, and no musical terminology of higher intricacy than the word "track", which you''ve used at least 6 times. This leads me to believe no work was done here aside from popping the album in; no proofreading, no research, no mention of brands of gear OR the label, and you couldn't even use one of thousands of online thesauruses to replace the word "track" at least once.

skrrckr wrote:

more than 2 years ago

On a brief scan of this review, I see many flaws. I will not attack your opinion, as it is your own, but your journalism is worthy of an equal or lesser mark than that of the album itself. If you're going to review music, proofread yourself so your opinion can be taken somewhat seriously. When you say things like "the worst prog-metal tracks I('ve) ever heard", go into more detail. No one wants to hear "Hey this album sucks. The end." If that's all you're going to do with the platform you've given yourself, just stop. It's lazy, unprofessional, and it lowers the credibility of all reviewers.

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Totally :-)

Stephen wrote:

more than 2 years ago

If we all like the same thing, then this world can be a boring place to live right ? :)

Time Signature wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Interestingly, the features that you don't like seem to be the same features that I really like. :-)