UMUR
"Northern Lights" is the debut full-length album by American, Portland, Oregon based technical/ progressive metal act A((WAKE)). The band have released an EP called "The Crescent" in 2006 so "Northern Lights" is not as such their debut release.
The music on the album is fully instrumental technical/ progressive metal with post metal leanings. There are five songs on the album but the first song is more of an intro. The music is pretty complex with the clean guitar post metal parts adding some variation to the otherwise technical and heavy proceedings. The three musicians that make up A((WAKE)) are very skilled and their considerable skills are one of the greatest assets on this album.
The production is excellent. Very heavy with lots of bottom but still clean. A very successful sound IMO.
While I do enjoy "Northern Lights" to some extent due to the high technical level of the musicianship and the occasional atmospheric parts, I think the music screams for a vocalist. The music is not varied enough to be instrumental IMO and I would strongly suggest that the band find themselves a lead vocalist before recording their next album. It´s of course an aquired taste but that´s my opinion. A 3 star rating is still warranted though and I´m sure people more into purely instrumental music will enjoy this one a bit more than me.