Metafiction is apparently the second album from Poland's Votum. Admittedly, I didn't know that there was much of a prog scene there what with most bands you hear about from there usually landing firmly in the Death metal or Black metal camps. Nevertheless, what we have here is an alright stab at a genre that tends to be quite hit and miss.

Taking lots of cues from the Porcupine Tree and Anathema school there's an abundance of atmospherics on the album, lots of keyboards and for the most part it employs a very soft and kinda boring sound with only Stranger Than Fiction and the latter half of December 20th showing any energy. Second track Glassy Essence does this as well, but at the same time seems very safe and alt-rockish. While this sort of sound may be playing towards the more "emotional" type of sound, it's pretty devoid of that too. Vocalist Maciej Kosinski sounds at parts like Mikael Akerfeldt and puts in a good turn, and the massive washes of keyboards stand out very well in places, especially the ballady (though on this album it's quite hard to distinguish some of the tracks as ballads or not) Faces which serves as a highlight for the album. The production does seem to be a bit keyboard heavy, the drums sound a flat, and the guitars are are just like fuzz most of the time when they're supposed to be distorted, but that isn't that often. There is some nice lead playing, but it's just that, "nice".

There's not much that stands out on this album that makes you want to grab it and listen, with no real points of interest musically as it's all a bit damp truthfully. Even if you like Porcupine Tree and Anathema there's not much here you'll really want to hear as they both do it far better. You can safely give it a miss and not feel any worse off for it.