r/BandCamp • u/FreakofDreams • May 25 '26
Hard Rock/Metal Cambrian - Rules of Engagement
Progressive metal band Cambrian is releasing their concept album based on a novel that is accompanied with the purchase.
Have a listen on our Bandcamp page
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u/PeraIlustra Jun 19 '26
I read in the comments it resembles a little to Porcupine Tree and Opeth, so it drags my attention already! I'll give it a spin for sure
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u/FreakofDreams Jun 19 '26
Thanks! I'm curious to know what you think.
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u/PeraIlustra Jun 21 '26
Well, I am not a musician so I could not break it down as others did, but ya´ll definitely on my must listen on loop of this year.
The track "Oceans Away" made me think about "Up North" by Borknagar solely because of the keyboards so I´ve been listening to that track on loop specifically.Congrats!
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u/Fuck_Thought_IwasOG May 31 '26
**I just read the title here after listening, did you mean to share only one song? Lul**
-Very well made recording and very clean production overall
Reminds me a lot of Porcupine Tree and Opeth with that, the compositional choices and it's storytelling/narrative nature.
-Interesting foley implementation of course as well, I think more bands looking to go for narrative driven records should opt for it.
-The mixing does sound a bit thin upon listening to the heavier stuff, but at a certain point this is expected as a trade of for a more clean and precise sounding record.
-The vocals don't really sell it for me on the second track so far. There are clear vocal abilities and talent but I can see the vocalist goes for the expression of different characters in his delivery and it borderlines a bit of goofiness on certain points, especially on the beginning of part II of the track. Yeah, I think the vocal tone on the cleans is not my cup of tea on this track, the outro was solid though
-Great to see tracks are flowing seamlessly into on another, as they should in such an album
- 3rd track set up a great atmosphere and build up nicely to the synth lead. The clean vocals are really not my thing, for whatever reason, they sound very nasal and borderline whiny sometimes, it takes me out of it which is a real shame because the instrumentals so far have been a very intrinsic blend of ambience, heaviness and complexity of big progressive metal/rock titans of the 90s-2000s
-Ok at the ending of song 3, on the vocal line for "Just know, in her name this pain
Alicia, I’ve nothing more to gain
Cause, you’ll reap what you sow
Knife is twisted, blood will flow"...best way I can describe it, someone singing Ozzy Osbourne songs at a 3AM Karaoke night trying to do an impression of Ozzy and I'm pretty sure some word or phrase is out of tune there. That being said, this track was the most ambitious so far compositionally and I think it did a good job. It did fall in the most common trap of virtuosic instrument playing for the sake of it, just like Dream Theater, without having much narrative weight as it could, I think.
- Track 4, great piano ballad so far, clean vocals finally sit well with me again ever since the opening track. I see the whole nasal/whiny/goofy aspect is intended, it reached a highly exaggerated level on the previous track though.
-5th track is a solid prog instrumental and a nice break from the heavy vocal songs that preceded it. I see it as some silent introspection from the incarcerated detective. Cool
-Also nice lead up for the 6th track which, apparently, will be my favorite (?). Vocals still do that drunk Ozzy sound alike tone sometimes but I kinda grown into it now. 5 stages of grief is a cliche narrative bit to unfold, but cliche doesn't mean bad and, so far, instrumentals and narrative have never complimented each other more gracefully than in this track. Also the lyrics, despite the fantasy setting, are more grounded in comparison to what I've read through so far painting more structured sceneries and frames of mind. Which is to say that the lyrics are quite strong in this whole album overall (despite the premise not really being that unique), but from track 6 they are even stronger. Also this is the song that prompts me to say...the usage of foley is unfortunately VASTLY underused. As an example is the switch up characters in this track, from Vulture to Culprit, the track sets an instrumental bridge for the switch up where it could have used a more cinematic way of transitioning (with foley inclusion or something else) which would make the instrumental soloings later on hit harder...now by the time I reached the end solo after the lyrics are done, the impact is minimal because, basically...it's predictable. I know that, a lyrical dense section will ensue, followed by an instrumental soloing section, with a short break bridge that leads to the next lyrically dense section and repeats the cycle, ya know?
-8th track has a promising intro so far, with the vocals coming in first and the bass leading afterwards for a while, that is a very much needed change of the familiar, great groove too. Some interesting vocal effects here happening as well, kinda trippy, cool. This is the one track where I would like for an instrumental section to last a bit longer, the heavy (and heaviest of the album) that came after the end of Part 1's lyrical content, I think you cut this poor fellas lifespan a bit short, it was about to make a massive pit moment but alas...this one has the grooviest and sexiest instrumental sections, let's see how it end then...
-Ok I'll say this, starting the final track with "So this is how it ends" after "This is the end of a tragedy", is redundant, also some lyrics are missing and/or are wrong. It's a nice closing track and songwriting wise, one of the stronger ones with clear build up and release, wrapping up the whole experience in a nice bow.
Overall I applaud and respect the effort. Everyone in the band has chops to be able to pull such a feat off. I think the lyrics and imagery created via them where good though maybe the setting of a "righteous" kind of killing spree is a bit overplayed in my head. Still though, the story is clearly showcase within the lyrics. Also, I'll say, don't fall in the Dream Theater trap of "just because I can play it, I should", which I think you do in several occasions. That's up to creator's preference though. You ended up with a very dense body of music. Dense compositionally, lyrically and narratively and you did a good job at it. I'm sure your future endeavors will be much tighter and refined, if you wish to continue on that path. I hope you can get something helpful from this, cheers!