It’s only been 6 months since the young Swedes released their debut demo ‘During Day One’, and already they come in kicking in with a fresh new disc. ‘Will and Perception’ is their second demo EP, and in my honest opinion; their best effort so far.

Do they deliver? – oh Yeah.

So, with Canopy being a fresh, new young Swedish band, they do tend to bring something new to the table. Their earlier stuff was more focused on melodic Death/Doom metal, but with ‘Will and Perception’ there’s definitely been not only focus on that, but also on some more clean Prog parts. And for sure that there’s more Death/Thrash notable too. So are there any improvements, and if so, what are those improvements? Well for one….the production! They managed to get a hold of Kristian Niemann (Therion/Demonoid) who did an excellent job on the production. Ex-Therion drummer Sami Karrpinen assisted the band being their drum-tech. The sound is very professional, and most of all very tight. Five strong, representful tracks.

Opener ‘Decipher’ comes in crashin’ directly after the little weedy-fady guitarnoise. And really, the entire track did my expectation justice. After being in contact with guitarist Jonatan for quite awhile, he said they’d be experimenting with some different elements. Well there we go. They keep the vibe of their debut alive in this track though. It sounds like there are two vocalists in this track, however let it be known that this is not the case. The vocalist just happens to take a ride to the evil-high pitched side for a min in the chorus.

On to ‘Perception’ (note that this disc is rather epic, looking at the track names, there’s definitely a story to interpretate and comprehend). This song starts off slowly with deep brutal vocals, and as seconds flow by the melody gets more alive and notable. It remains in the same vibe, with soft clean parts spotted in the middle. Good… ballad, guys? Harhar.

‘For the Sickened Voice to Hear’ takes things to a different platform. The Swedish sound is defininetely noted. Good solid drum-beat, well-coughed up vocals, audible bass, great riffage, and melodism. A little Edge of Sanity alike? Surely in the vein of ‘Crimson’ anyway. What can I say? Definitely ‘for my sickened ears to bear’.

The fourth track ‘Void’ starts off with a clean part, which slowly ceases to be one of the thrashier songs on this demo. Surely showing potential here. They need more parts like this in my opinion, I’m a sucker for thrash/death noise.

The demo ends with an over 10-min long running track entitled ‘Will’, which also is easily one of my favourite tracks on this EP. That due being to the diversity of the song, they tend to bend a little between the usual Canopy sound, and some Death/Prog along with that. Kristian Niemann provided an outstanding solo which is running in around at the 4th min. All the musicians on this track stand out the most on this one, for sure.

On their previous demo, multi-mind Dan Swanö provided them with a fantastic guitarsolo, and wonderful vocals for the outro of their track ‘Symbiotic’. So, again we have a famous name filling in for some guest stuff. Great work, Kristian. I guess a famous name helps with the sales, which is a good thing for the band, because they should be noted in the scene. But with this release (and their previous one too!) they should be signed to a label right the fuck-away, because talent is definitely been shown so far.

All in all, -Swedish-Doom/Death/Thrash, -top notch production, -fresh, -headbangworthy. If any of these words apply to you, go for it. I surely recommend it, and the boys deserve more recognition anyway. Keep it up.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]