Great art, or even any form of art, really, takes time to finish. Creating art, in any media, is a painstaking, soul-crushing process of trial, error, existential dread, only to rinse and repeat until done. Every single tweak feels like it could either make or break the whole thing, and you’d have to allot time to ever figuring out if that’s for the better or for worse. Truth is, taking forever isn’t a flaw—it’s how the magic happens.
Passion/Bliss EP is touted as the grand finale of Coma Beach’s The Scapegoat Revisited trilogy—a celebration of three decades since the release of The Scapegoat’s Agony in 1995, meaning much like Bo Burnham in the middle of his Netflix special Inside, Coma Beach has been making art so long that it’s turning 30. With that said, this EP is not just a musical release—it’s an event; a somber farewell to a project that began when most of us were still arguing over the possibilities of the upcoming second millennium.
Now, despite the time I allotted to encompassing the full trilogy, I admittedly may miss a few details here or there if I were to discuss the themes in full and because the points made in this project (meaning the trilogy) are best expressed on an initial discovering listen, my review will sidestep the lore and discuss this EP on its own merits first, but I will say this: for an album inspired in the form of an allusion of “Waiting for Godot” by Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett, this project is precise and earnest, like an adaptation that shows a fondness for the source material and plays as much as it can straight.
Passion/Bliss by Coma Beach is a sprawling, justifiably melodramatic and often humanly self-indulgent EP that manages to be both fascinating and admittedly exhausting in an equally macabre measure, sludging through literarily impressive musings over guitars that churn and vocals that coat like a mixture of oil and molasses to be set ablaze by guitar solos that are my personal favorite parts of the project for just how well-produced they are, especially on the first track Passion.
Going further on a prior compliment, the EP is auditory goop, in that much like slime, melodies spread and soak everything in its path despite being pretty clear and nowhere near sludgy; the best kind of blues mixes go by this production style, and I admire it for that. Then there’s the writing which shares the elements of being undeniably well-crafted, as this project shuffles through multi-part arcs and literary fourth-wall breaking, if you believe it or not.
If you enjoy the writing that best describes beautiful creatures as “comforting compost” with a healthy side of existential dread to engulf this project aptly, it’s definitely worth a listen.
Great art takes time. Coma Beach made great art over the past three decades. Kudos to them for that; check out this EP to congratulate a lofty conclusion to their great art.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for publications in the US and former lead writer of Atop The Treehouse. Reviews music, film and TV shows for media aggregators.
