UMUR "Northern Lights" is the debut full-length album by US, 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 5 tracks on the album but the opening track is more of an intro. The music is generally 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 sound production is of high quality. Very heavy with lots of bottom but still clean. A very suiting sound for the music.

While I do enjoy "Northern Lights" to some extent due to the high technical level of the musicianship and the occasional atmospheric parts, which are quite enjoyable too, I ultimately 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 advice. A 3 star (60%) rating is still warranted though and the album does feature lots of promise and intriguing ideas, so it´s probably one of those cases where you shouldn´t just trust the reviewer, but give it a listen yourself.