There are many great musicians out there, and if I focus on instrumentalists, I must say that it is quite common for them to try to put all of their technical knowledge into their music, attempting to show all of their capabilities in one song and creating an entire album out of it. Overwhelming solos and arpeggios are like sugarcoating on already sweet cookies. “Quantum,” released on March 28, 2021, by Tomasz Piwecki is quite the opposite. If I continue with the analogy with food, “Quantum” is a perfect combination of ingredients with the right amount of spices on top, offering you combinations that you would not think of combining, but they blend perfectly with the taste.
Tomasz Piwecki is a solo musician who hails from Poland. His musical influences, primarily progressive metal, can be clearly heard on the album. “Quantum” has the perfect balance between melodic and raw, aggressive guitar riffs. The musicianship is very well crafted with progressive parts not only because of the genre but how the song progresses with the feeling itself. Besides being a guitarist, he is no stranger to other instruments and does not always put his guitar upfront. All the songs tell a story by expressing the words that describe the feelings of the entire world, accompanied by the perfect selection of instruments to play a role in their specific parts. Even the guest musicians blend perfectly with the storytelling.
The song “Andromeda” from the album “Quantum” fits perfectly into these festive days full of magical and mythological creatures surrounding us ’til the end of the year. I was always a fan of mythology, from Norse and Slavic to Greek and Roman. “Andromeda” starts with a clean rhythmic sound, supported by the ambient synth that gives the song its overall atmosphere. The short-scale with an oriental feel is just the right spice for the intro before the heavy progressive riff hits. The distorted guitar line played with the progression overlaps, letting the chords ring, giving the extra rawness, and the same progression with a change of clarity gives it yet another dimension before making a transition to the clean melodic part. The song plays with the listener’s ears by changing the tempos using simple chord progressions in different variations. The guitar solo itself is gentle and very expressive. The rhythm supporting it gives a faster tempo, but overall the feeling remains to accent the solo. The song beautifully plays between rhythm and solos toward the end and closes with an already familiar riff that gives the song closure.
“Andromeda” is a beautiful song that is part of the “Quantum” album, which has more songs like this. The production is done really well and none of the instruments are left unheard. On the album, there is also a song with vocals featuring Liodee. The overall album is really well balanced. All the elements are in just the right spot, giving the audience the opportunity to go over the songs again. Even though songs feel simple at the beginning, there is always something more to digest. “Quantum” is not only for fans of instrumental metal, but I’m quite positive that other music lovers will surely find this to their liking.
Written by Peter Jerman
