Reviewed by Alex Figgis

Some would say that a picture paints a thousand words; Daren "Klank" Diolosa - ex-guitarist for Scott "Celldweller" Albert's brainchild Circle Of Dust - uses his creative skills to paint a thousand pictures. Using a myriad of sound and lyrical expression, mental images of such grandeur are created that one cannot help but be drawn deep within the boundaries of passive listening and into the realm of vivid imagination set to a score of industrial metal/hard rock of the highest quality. "Animosity" is one such example: the listener is taken at running pace along a corridor of sound headlong into the arms of the uncomfortable question, "Why must we suffer in this life we live in?", only to then be thrown through a curtain of sampled Gregorian chanting and into a void of such profound musical expression, one can acutely sense the pain and anguish with which Daren writes. Other topics covered within 'Still Suffering' are pain, regret, moral and social decline in the form of sexual, physical and mental abuse and honesty. This debut by Klank is most certainly not for the faint hearted. The very nature of both lyrical and musical expression may be enough to put some people off. To quote the man himself, "Some people will be able to understand and relate to my views...I urge you...to look deep and find the true meaning that you can emerge and find solace and refuge in." The whole purpose of this project is to vent and expose, from a very personal perspective, pain and suffering in all its awful manifestations.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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