Playgrounded is an Electronic/Heavy rock band formed in Greece in 2007 and now based in Rotterdam, Holland. Their debut album, ‘Athens’, was released in 2013 and they are now back with the follow-up. They supported the likes of Anathema and Riverside following that release, attempting a balance between heavy rock and electronic music, driven by endless talks on the dead-ends of modern Greece. Recorded between August and November 2016 in Kristiansand Norway and produced by C.A.Cederberg (Anathema, Maria Mena etc.), the follow-up (according to the band) stands on the shoulders of giants to take a small step down the path of progressive music, where electronic and electric passages always gravitate to hypnotic ambient grooves.
These are great words, but I’m not sure that it always works. There are times when Playgrounded come across as being heavily influenced by Muse, and this works incredibly well, but when they are more overtly electronic in focus I’m afraid that I tend to lose interest. While I do enjoy some electronic music, it does tend to be in small doses, and even the use of real drums as opposed to programmed doesn’t really strike me as much as it should. For me this is an album where the band are still trying to strike their own identity, perhaps not surprising given that it was composed while they were in the throes of moving from Greece to Holland, two very different countries within the EU. It will be the next album, once they are established in Holland, that will show if they are going to be the force they want to be within progressive music. For me this is very much a “wait and see” release, which is good but not essential.
