Hanging Garden, the melodic doomsters hailing from Finland, have been on a creative roll lately, releasing three new records in less than 24 months. Following their 2021 full-length Skeleton Lake, the band released the EP Neither Moth nor Rust in early 2022. Now, they are back with their eight full-length record titled The Garden. As the album’s near self-title suggests, the band envisioned it as a sort of magnum opus encapsulating the quintessence of their musicality, constantly balanced between light and darkness, melody and heaviness. Without further delay, let’s then enter The Garden and discover the treasures that lie within.

Right from the start, the title-track sets the perfect ambience for the record that we have come to expect from Hanging Garden. The tempo is slow-paced, with the drums locked in a barren pattern of kick/snare and open/closed hi-hat notes that remains mostly constant throughout the track, emphasizing its plumbeous atmosphere. A slowly downpicked rhythm guitar adds to the gloomy vibe, while the lead guitar and keyboards provide contrast by weaving in slow, melancholic melodies and dreamy textures. The same interplay of light and dark is achieved through the layered vocal arrangements. Riikka Hatakka provides soothing, ethereal vocals, while her brother Toni Hatakka alternates between languid cleans and cavernous growls. The song structure is fluid, loosely based on recurring themes but without the predictable alternation between rigidly-defined verses and chorus. It’s a complex, dynamic, multi-layered composition that envelopes the listener with a thick blanket of melancholy, while offering lingering rays of light and hope. This evokes the same type of mellow, soul-piercing atmosphere we may find in the music of bands like Swallow the Sun or (for those who remember them) early EverEve.

Hanging Garden maintain this delicate balance throughout the album, gradually incorporating additional influences into their artistic palette. Songs such as “The Construct” and “The Nightfall” pay homage to Type O Negative, with clean vocals reminiscent of Peter Steele, while “The Song of Spring” and “The Fire at First Dawn” delve further into gothic atmospheres with a touch of Paradise Lost and Anathema. In other tracks, the extreme metal influences become more prominent, nudging the music towards the territory of melodic death metal (Insomnium and Dark Tranquillity, in particular). Overall, compared to their previous record Skeleton Lake, Hanging Garden seem to have shed some of the catchy gothic gimmicks in favor of a sound that is both heavier and more atmospheric.

Although The Garden’s 11 songs create pleasant soundscapes, the album still falls short of escaping the same pitfalls found in the band’s previous work. At 48 minutes of length, the lack of variation in pace, structure and ambience can be a drag. This is particularly noticeable in the mellower mid-section of the LP, where tracks between “The Fire at First Dawn” and “The Journey” tend to blur together, lacking strongly distinctive elements that differentiate them. Partly, this also reflects the band’s tendency to frontload their albums, which was also the case with the previous LP. The opening four songs contain the most inspired material, and listeners have to wait until the closing track “The Resolute” to experience the same strong response triggered in the first 20 minutes of the LP. However, even at its best, it’s hard to ignore the feeling that The Garden stays always too close to its influences, particularly Swallow the Sun. With around 50/60 new metal albums released each week, creative personality and originality are crucial to stand out from the crowd, and Hanging Garden fall somewhat short in this respect.

Overall, The Garden is an album that simmers rather than erupts, relying on its overall cinematic atmosphere to convey its beauty instead of catchy tunes that immediately grab you. While it may not reach the magnum opus status the band intended, it remains a strong example of melodic gothic doom/death metal that will no doubt please fans of Hanging Garden as well as other bands mentioned in this review.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

Haken's seventh full-length album, Fauna, is one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year in the progressive rock/metal genre. The British band have been playing together for nearly two decades, and with each album, their popularity has steadily grown. Their most recent LP, Virus, topped our very own Top 30 Albums of 2020 chart, a testament to Haken's impressive rise within and beyond the prog metal community. With Fauna, there are understandably high expectations, as fans are eager to see how far Haken can push the boundaries this time around. Will Fauna live up to the hype? Will it exceed expectations?

To get straight to the point, Fauna is Haken's bold attempt to secure a spot at the top of the food chain by blending classic progressive rock, (djenty) prog metal, and 80s pop to create new sonic hybrids that are both accessible and rich in depth and complexity. This places Haken right at the forefront of what defines progressive music today, competing head-to-head with other progressive rock/metal giants such as Steven Wilson and Leprous. While this is a blessing, it's also a curse for the album, as I will try and argue next.

On the one hand, Fauna is perhaps the most accessible and accomplished collection of songs by the Brits. Tracks like “Taurus”, “The Alphabet of Me”, “Sempiternal Beings”, “Lovebites”, “Elephants Never Forget”, and “Eyes of Ebony” will linger in your mind long after the LP has ended, with their skillful fusion of grand arrangements, soaring melodies, and exceptional musicianship. The songwriting is remarkable, gracefully treading the fine line between simplified pop music and complex progressive works. Verses and choruses are repeated, yet never in the same manner, retaining a freshness and vibrancy that most contemporary metal releases lack. There are plenty of quirky guitar riffs, extravagant keyboard sounds, and clever rhythmic tricks, but they are all used with moderation and in service to the songs – something that Haken have not always accomplished in the past, but have fully mastered this time. The melodic hooks are massive, yet never mundane. Ross Jennings’ performance is his most convincing with Haken yet, as he uses his lower register more, creating a striking contrast with the high-pitched vocals he is known for. The performances of the rest of the band are also top-notch, as one would expect from a band of such caliber.

Despite all the positives, there is an obvious elephant in the room that demands attention and is closely tied to Haken's ambition to be at the forefront of contemporary prog rock/metal. The album's blend of prog, metal, and pop takes Haken into similar territory as artists like Steven Wilson or Leprous, to the point where the similarities between Fauna and albums like Leprous' Pitfalls and Aphelion or Wilson's Hand.Cannot.Erase or To the Bone can be hard to ignore. This is particularly evident on "Taurus", where the contrast between sparse, dark textures and elegiac vocals reminds one of Wilson's fondness for chiaroscuro compositions. Later, in the same song's bridge, Haken veer towards the kind of ominous, epic sound that Soen has been perfecting on their latest releases. On "The Alphabet of Me", Jennings seems instead to channel his inner Einar Solberg (Leprous), complete with trademark "ooohs" and "aaahs", while the song's overall jittery unfolding brings to mind the English art rock band Everything Everything. Similarly, echoes of Leprous can also be heard on "Beneath the White Rainbow" and "Sempiternal Beings," while Wilsonesque melodies and harmonies surface among the notes of "Island in the Clouds" and "Elephants Never Forget".

As a fan of all the bands mentioned above, I find it incredibly difficult not to fall in love with Fauna. In fact, since receiving the promo, I've been playing the LP on repeat more than any of Haken's previous albums. However, in the grand scheme of things, it's hard not to see Fauna as a transitional record, much like their 2016 album Affinity, in which the band incorporated 80s prog rock influences into their sound. With Fauna, Haken is experimenting with much more contemporary prog rock/metal influences, which is considerably more challenging. The album is at its best when the band seamlessly incorporate these influences into their own unique sound, as they do on tracks like "Sempiternal Beings" and "Elephants Never Forget". In other places, however, the new influences are a bit too prominent, which detracts somewhat from the band's essence. It's a delicate balance, and although Fauna only gets it right half the time, it sets an exciting course for the future of one of the most talented and promising bands in the prog metal scene today.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

As a huge Evergrey fan, I was very intrigued by the announcement made in 2017 by US progressive metal band Redemption that they would be replacing their longstanding vocalist Ray Alder (Fates Warning) with the mastermind behind Swedish power/prog titans Evergrey, Tom Englund. However, when their first album together, Long Night's Journey into Day, was released in 2018, it didn't quite meet my (admittedly high) expectations. I felt that the band played it too safe and didn't fully take advantage of Englund's incredible voice. Now, fast forward to 2023, and Redemption has returned with a new album, once again featuring Englund on vocals. I Am the Storm, the band's eighth studio album, is released on March 17th via AFM Records, and it has completely pulverized all of my previous concerns and reservations about their previous LP.

I Am the Storm is one of the best “traditional progressive metal” albums I have listened in quite a while. When I say “traditional progressive metal”, I mean that Redemption’s sound has remained largely unaffected by the post-metal/pop/djent contaminations that many contemporary prog metal acts have embraced in recent years. Instead, this album stays true to the US prog metal sound that was established in the late 90s and early 00s by bands such as Dream Theater, Fates Warning and Symphony X. The guitars play a central role in the sound design, with an onslaught of riffs and melodic leads. The busy rhythm section is powerful, with thunderous beats, while the keyboards are used in moderation to add color and texture to the dense metallic soundscape. Meanwhile, Englund's vocals are skillfully woven in and out of these textures, allowing ample space for lengthy instrumental sections.

This is not to say, however, that there aren’t modern contaminations and exciting sonic experiments present. In fact, Redemption incorporate a diverse set of influences into their sound, including ferocious thrash metal, classic progressive rock (as evidenced by the Genesis/Peter Gabriel covers included on the LP), and more modern, post-rock-influenced atmospheric soundscapes (“The Emotional Depiction Of Light”). The end result is an album that manages to feel fresh and varied, while at the same time retaining a clear and distinctive sonic identity.

With I Am the Storm there is a clear sense that Redemption took risks in their songwriting that ultimately paid off in a big way. The different influences that have shaped Redemption’s sound over the years have been taken to new extremes on this album. The heavy tracks (“I Am the Storm”, “Resilience”) hit unashamedly hard and approach a degree of metallic ferocity that would not be out of place on a Nevermore album. On the other hand, “The Emotional Depiction Of Light” lies at the opposite end of the spectrum, with its delicate interplay between Englund’s voice and Vikram Shankar’s piano, building to a beautiful cathartic crescendo that tugs at the heartstrings in a way reminiscent of Anathema or Silent Skies (Englund and Shankar's recent atmospheric metal project). Between these extremes, I Am the Storm offers a plethora of sublime progressive pieces. “Remember the Dawn”, “Action At A Distance” and “All This Time (And Not Enough)” are longer pieces with complex structures, plenty of virtuoso playing, and subtle references to the classic progressive rock sound, reminding me of a slightly heavier version of bands like Spock’s Beard or Enchant.

The names mentioned in the previous paragraphs indicate that the album covers a lot of ground. Yet, it does so with finesse and sophistication, allowing for smooth and natural transitions between the different styles. I also feel that with the new material, Redemption have finally discovered how to unlock Englund's full potential. His performance on I Am the Storm is undoubtedly his best in a while. Although I adore Englund's distinctive and poignant voice, it's difficult to ignore the fact that in his recent work with Evergrey he has stuck to a pattern of similar melodies and cadences that may comfortably suit his voice, but can also make the songs feel monotonous. On I Am the Storm Nick Van Dyk’s diverse songwriting challenges Englund to step out of his comfort zone and experiment with his voice, sometimes with more aggression and other times with more melody. This is similar to the approach taken on Evergrey's early and highly progressive LPs, where Englund first established himself as one of the finest singers in the genre. It’s a joy to rediscover his versatility and tremendous class on this new record.

The rest of the band also delivers incredible performances, with Van Dyk’s showcasing his terrific guitar skills, ranging from heavy and aggressive to sublimely melodic. Shankar adds beautiful synth textures, while Chris Quirarte on drums and Sean Andrews on bass provide a solid and ultra-heavy rhythmic backbone. Special recognition also goes to Simone Mularoni (DGM) for his jaw-dropping and exquisitely well-constructed solos. His mixing and mastering jobs are also commendable, although the guitars may be slightly too prominent in the mix and the drums may be too busy, taking away some nuance from the other instruments.

In the end, however, the standout feature of I Am the Storm is the incredible quality of its songwriting. In contrast to Redemption’s previous LP Long Night's Journey into Day, there are no filler tracks on this album. Each song delivers some of the finest progressive metal you're likely to hear this year: technically intricate and fiercely heavy, but always exquisitely melodic. Prog metal fans should not overlook this album: I Am the Storm is Album of the Year material, and Redemption’s greatest artistic achievement yet.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

Katatonia are a bona fide metal institution. With 12 full-length albums under their belt, the Stockholm-based trailblazers have been leaders in redefining the sound of the genre, building from their death/doom origins in the 1990s to gradually incorporate post-rock, dark rock, and progressive metal elements into their music. On January, 20th, 2023 the band will release their latest effort Sky Void of Stars via Napalm Records. Comprised of 10 songs (plus 1 bonus-track), once again all penned by vocalist and founding member Jonas Renkse, the anticipation for the follow-up to 2020’s City Burials is sky high. Can the dark metal icons pull off yet another masterpiece? Or are the years taking a toll on their creativity?

These were some of the questions going through my head as I pressed “PLAY” to stream the promo provided by Napalm Records. My trepidation was further enhanced by the fact that I wasn’t overly impressed with the band’s previous LP City Burials - an album that walked a fine line between understated mellowness and plodding torpor, but did not always manage to stay on the right side of it. Fortunately, Sky Void of Stars blew all my concerns out of the water, and stands magnificently as one of the best albums Katatonia ever made.

With the new LP, the Swedes have attempted something very bold. They have taken the most distinctive aspects of their sound over the last 20 years, and pushed each separate element to a further extreme, all in the space of the same record. If you have been following the release of the three album singles, you will know exactly what I mean. The first single “Atrium” was a gloriously catchy, deceptively simple goth tune that could by all means be a new “Teargas” or “My Twin” for the band. Next, Katatonia dropped “Austerity”, an incredible tour-de-force that manages to distillate in just under 4 minutes the essence of modern progressive metal, from angular riffing to complex polyrhythms, all without losing sight of melody. The final single “Birds” took us yet on another stylistic turn: it’s a more straightforward, heavier piece that harks back to the sound Katatonia pioneered in the early 2000s, on their Viva Emptiness album in particular, with its austere atmosphere, sinister melodies and urgent pacing.

Taken together, the three singles capture exactly what you can expect to find on Sky Void of Stars: catchy, electronic-laden gothic anthems, punishing progressive beasts, and heavy-hitting slabs of sinister dark metal. “Hang on a second”, you ask, “how can these disparate styles coexist on the same LP?”. While the three singles may point to a scattershot album that does not quite know which direction to take, the real beauty of Sky Void of Stars lies in how naturally and elegantly Katatonia managed to weave together these different sonic niches to form a strikingly coherent whole.

A lot of it has to do with the sequencing of the tracklist. The way it keeps building and releasing tension - alternating driving uptempos with mellower songs, heavy demanding pieces with sudden bursts of melodic accessibility - is absolutely pitch-perfect. The shifts are gradual and natural. Take the first three tracks on the LP. Opener “Austerity” takes no prisoners. Drummer Daniel Moilanen is on fire: his urgent, tentacular performance is astonishing, making it almost impossible to count the time signatures. Niklas Sandin’s pulsating bass is no less impressive both in the faster, more technically demanding parts and in the mellower jazzy bridge. Meanwhile, Anders Nyström and Roger Öjersson churn out some beautifully complex riffs, before Öjersson unleashes a shimmering solo halfway through the song (the first of many he performs on this record). Renkse’s voice is warm and inviting as usual, but his melodies are oblique and unpredictable, making for a rather claustrophobic start to the album. How do you come down from such a high-pressure, high-impact track? “Colossal Shade” dials things down gradually with its catchier melodies, bouncy mid-tempo and poppy electronic undertones, but there is a darkness lurking beneath the surface, in the heavy chug of the guitars and the dissonant bridge, which ushers in those Viva Emptiness vibes I was mentioning earlier. With “Opaline”, the comedown is complete. Together with “Atrium”, the song is probably the most accessible of the whole album, with its infectious electro-goth undercurrents and mellow keyboard lines, all converging into a majestic, melancholy-infused chorus that brings to mind the band’s best work on The Great Cold Distance.

The rest of the album ebbs and flows in a similar fashion. “Birds” and “Author” dial up the tension again - the latter packing a lugubrious chorus that takes me way back to those early Katatonia albums where Renkse had just started experimenting with clean-vocal (but pitch-black) melodies (Tonight’s Decision; Discouraged Ones). The mellow, vaguely psychedelic “Drab Moon” softens the blows, while “Impermanence” is a spellbinding heavy ballad that features co-vocals by Joel Ekelöf (Soen) as well as some beautifully mournful guitar leads that hark back to the band’s early doom days. “Sclera” is a masterpiece in understatement, with its barely hinted melodies, scattered drumming and evocative electronic effects. The crescendo from verse to pre-chorus to chorus is mesmerizing, and builds the perfect tension for the subsequent track “Atrium”, which is the other melodic centrepiece of the album after “Opaline”. Sky Void of Stars closes as it started, with another crushingly progressive piece. This time extending to over 6 minutes in length, “No Beacon To Illuminate Our Fall” is an ever-changing beast that builds on twisted riffs and bleak vocal lines that keep mutating and evolving, leaving the listener with little to latch on and no clear sense of what may come next.

The record is further graced by a masterful production by Danish wizard Jacob Hansen: warm and natural, yet clinically clean, it achieves a beautiful separation between frequencies in the mix, ensuring that each instrument is clearly heard at all times, from Sandin’s bass, to the two guitars, to the keyboard effects, to Moilanen’s various drum components. The end result is particularly admirable when one considers how richly textured the music is. The keyboards and electronic effects are omnipresent, but so are the drums and the guitars - the latter playing a much more prominent role than on City Burials. As a consequence, Sky Void of Stars feels heavier and fuller than its predecessor, but this is accomplished without sacrificing nuance or clarity.

With of Sky Void of Stars Katatonia have tried something bold and ambitious: to condense in the space a single LP the vast universe of styles and influences they have taken on board in the course of their three-decade career - from doom, to gothic metal, to electronica, to progressive rock. What’s more - instead of attempting to find a compromise between the different styles within each song, they pushed each different style to the fore across a different set of songs, merging them then into a coherent narrative by means of gradual shifts in tension and expressivity. In many ways, this is reminiscent of what Katatonia tried to do on City Burials, but with much better results, as the new album sounds crisper and more dynamic, and it achieves a better balance between mellow and upbeat moments as well as between guitar-driven music and futuristic electronic elements.

The flip side of this ambitious endeavour is that Sky Void of Stars is not an easy record to take in: there is a lot going on and the album requires a dedicated investment in time and active listening on the part of the audience. It is, however, worthy of every second of your time, because Sky Void of Stars is absolutely brilliant, and perhaps even the pinnacle of the Katatonia’s entire discography.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

Polish prog metallers Riverside are back with their new full-length album ID.Entity released worldwide via InsideOut on January, 20. The new LP is the first with Maciej Meller as a permanent member on guitar, after the tragic death of the band’s original guitar player Piotr Grudziński in 2016. The rest of the line-up is completed by Mariusz Duda (bass, vocals), Piotr Kozieradzki (drums) and Michał Łapaj (keyboards), who have now been playing together in Riverside for over twenty years.

Despite the remarkable stability in the band’s line-up, ID.Entity shakes things up considerably as far as its sound is concerned, and it is probably one of the most unique and diverse albums in Riverside’s discography so far. Fear not, though: the band’s sound is still firmly rooted in that special hybrid of prog rock and metal that Riverside have been perfecting for more than two decades now. The songs strike a great balance between accessibility and technical complexity. The structure is rich, with multiple interconnected sections and returning motifs, but there are always prominent melodic lines to guide the listener through the ebbs and flows of each of composition. There are also plenty of staccato riffs and intricate polyrhythms that prog fans can sink their teeth into, and a very prominent bass sound for the pleasure of 4-string enthusiasts. The playing is sublime as always by all musicians involved, with Michał Łapaj’s keyboards striking me as particularly inspired on the new songs.

So far things may feel familiar. However, there are also some clear departures from the sound Riverside developed in previous records. The new songs are much more upbeat and uptempo than usual, shaking off that dense sense of melancholy that had almost become a hallmark of Riverside’s albums, especially the last few ones. The sound is also slightly more metallic and heavier, throwing us back to the early, hard-hitting Riverside’s LPs. At the same time, the band here experiments with a vaster array of non-metal influences than in any of their previous albums. There are 80s synthpop references surfacing at various places through the LP, more obviously on opening track “Friend or Foe?”. In a few tracks, I also hear neoprog influences - Marillion in particular (“The Place Where I Belong”, “I’m Done With You”), while “Self-Aware” even digresses in reggae territory, if you can believe it.

Dazzling technical playing, a broad set of influences, and lots of proggy adventurousness to placate our nerdiness are definitely among the many strengths that ID.Entity has to offer. However, if I have to be honest, the new record does not come without weaknesses. Two are bothering me particularly. First, the album sounds a bit like its cover image looks: fragmented. There are lots of great moments here and there that do perk my ears, but somehow I can’t seem to find the glue that holds all these little pieces together. Sometimes, it is just a matter of the band cramming too much in too little time: this is especially the case in the shorter tracks where often one does not have even the time to get to know a riff or melody, that Riverside have already moved on to the next one (“Post-Truth”). But things do not always feel smooth even in the longer tracks. The 13-minute “The Place Where I Belong” sounds a lot like 3 separate songs stitched together into one for the sake of it, and it fails to carry momentum from start to finish. I gave quite a lot of thought to what I might be missing, and it seems to me that the new songs do not always manage to create a consistent emotional red thread that can connect the various themes together and ultimately engage and engross the listener. The music does ebb and flow, but the emotional tension remains disappointingly flat for a lot of the album’s duration.

The album’s concept may be partly the culprit here. ID.Entity focuses on social criticism asking important questions about identity and technology in a post-truth world riddled with fake-news that spread on social media like the plague. It’s a controversial and difficult concept, and Duda’s intelligent lyrics make for an interesting and at times thought-provoking read. However, I feel that the concept may have somehow hijacked the creative process here, ultimately stealing the poetry out of it. It is almost as Duda’s need to clearly convey the message took priority over the musicality and poetry of what he is singing. There are moments in the album where his lines simply have too many prosaic words to make for compelling song lyrics or even for decent lines to sing. Snippets such as “Everyone’s divided/extreme right or extreme left/that’s the only choice”, “And this goddamn anger/coming from every corner/I am not surprised/not happy either/because how much can you bear being fucking lied to”, or “You are not my own CEO” should give you an idea of what I mean. I find myself constantly snapping out of the album’s flow and mood because of it, which contributes to my struggle to get emotionally involved with the music.

Ultimately, and it pains me to say this, ID.Entity is a record that was interesting to spin for the purpose of this review, but that I did not feel attracted to return to for more after each spin. There are only a couple of songs that I genuinely enjoy listening to repeatedly: “Friend or Foe?” (perhaps the best track here), “Big Tech Brother” (but I really have to ignore the annoying fake-robot voice at the start of the song) and “Self-Aware” (though the reggaeton part is a tad jarring). This does not mean that ID.Entity is a bad album, and in fact I suspect that if you are not too bothered by its emotional dryness or the lyrics as I am, you may enjoy this quite a bit as the LP contains a lot of strong music and great playing across its 53 minutes. Overall, while I predict that ID.Entity will divide opinions and is not likely to end up at the top of many people’s favorite Riverside LP list, it is certainly yet another high-quality release from the Polish band, and the start of a new chapter that I will eagerly continue to follow.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]