Short Reviews [Salva - 2020 - "A Thousand Ways to Disappear"]

This is Salva’s sixth album released in in 2020, and there has since been another, but I haven’t heard that one yet. It is safe to say that I was not the biggest fan of the previous release, ‘Off The Deep End’, and I must be fair and say that this is somewhat better, but still not up to the standard of ‘Sigh of Boreas; from 2016. The issue I have with them is that this feels too much like prog by numbers, and there is not enough within it to hold my interest for too long. I had some issues with the vocals last time around, but this time they are much better, but this is an album which just drags. It does get better the more it is played, but the first few times I just did not like it at all whereas now I find it somewhat bearable but also instantly forgettable. This is solid crossover, and the guitars never have the bite which would take this into another level, and it is all feels somewhat muted, so much so that if this music was a colour, then it would be beige. They try to move more into neo prog areas at times, but it never really comes off, and they are certainly the symphonic prog band they claim to be. In some ways they come across as a sanitised AOR melodic rock band combined with a crossover act and probably missing the audience in both of them. They say in their press release that they produce adventurous music, but nothing could be further from the truth. The production is good, musicianship is fine, it is more the quality of the songs themselves and consequently I cannot be returning to this in a hurry.