If you've ever had the misfortune of experiencing something commonly referred to as a 'panic attack', you'll know exactly what I mean when I say that there isn't enough air you can breathe quickly enough when one of these things rears its head. 

Why do I feel it necessary to introduce a review for a self produced twelve-track debut album from Newport alternative metallers Spiridion with such a twisted vision of psychological anxiety? Well, if you had, like me, just spent the best part of a month living with 'A Moment Of Clarity' slowing crawling under your skin and into your brain like some David Cronenberg creation I'm sure you'd get the picture too.

Within its fifty plus minute running time 'A Moment Of Clarity' somehow manages to deliver visions of claustrophobia, detachment from reality and solitude and, as the band's first effort, it really does take your breath away.

Built around down-tuned staccato riffing and cutting drum patterns, the fury and fragility of the band's output is startlingly mature for a band so young. Album opener 'Thirty Eight And Gone' and its follow up 'Becoming Nothing' being two prime examples of the band's split song personalities with singer Ross swapping from storyteller to serial killer in the space of just a few verses.

Okay there will be reference points to Tool and The Deftones that can be made whilst exploring the padded walls of 'A Moment Of Clarity'. I also picked up on this when I saw the band live with Zico Chain recently, but tracks like 'Perish' and 'Fallback' raise the tempo sufficiently ahead of the usual nu metal stutter pace to ensure you hear Spiridion first and not the influences of their contemporaries.

If I were to tell you that the glorious secret to Spiridion's sound is best wrapped up in a one minute and thirty-four second segue titled 'A Structure To Form', that combines ambient feedback with silence you'd think I was crazy right? Well sorry to disappoint you (and hold back the straight jacket) but for me this Robert Fripp inspired piece of genius shows just why Spiridion stand out from the rest of the crowd as leaders and not simply imitators.

Spiridion have taken a huge risk here by releasing such an introspective and 'heavy' album, and by self-financing and self-producing it, they have also made a huge commitment to their art.... Now, music buying public it's over to you to repay this belief (and eight months of hard work) by going out and buying yourself 'A Moment Of Clarity'.

http://www.spiridion.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/spiridion