Noting a progressive band on a label specialising in progressive music, I was struck by the following description of this band’s music: “Their sombre sound drifts listeners on a stormy ritual invoking images of a tide of raindrops falling from a cloudy and dark sky that gradually reveals a scattering of light, culminating in a halo of hope”. With assistance from Klone’s Guillaume Bernard with the arrangements, here HamaSaari embark upon their debut album.
From a quiet and mystical beginning, the album bursts into life with a melodic prog-oriented song, burst out into momentary anger. The guitar work on the quieter section is faintly eastern. This is “Different Time”. It’s powerful and cascading, and very reminiscent of Porcupine Tree especially in the reflective section. It becomes clear that the delicate guitar is a highlight of this work. The singer, while not a clone of Steven Wilson, has a very similar style of delivery. HamaSaari back their songs not just with delicate guitar, but when it suits with power and with harmony. They also know how to use enhancing sound effects. “Crumbs” is another accomplished soft rock-metal song with phases of both reflection and drama. The melancholic start of “Lords” is pure Porcupine Tree. The woozy, keyboard-laced midsection that follows could easily come from Opeth’s “Damnation”. We are guided through dreamland. Yet there was something incomplete about “Lords” which dazzles through its gloom and mistiness but seems more about the sound and the atmosphere than the song.
“Bleak” is the title of an Opeth song but not this one, which continues the dreamy and reflective mood of “Lords”. Lofty harmonies add to the drum pattern. The sound becomes more expansive but dies down like the wind, and slows down to self-contemplation before dark instrumental clouds cut in and guide us through the rest. “White Pinnacles” starts with the heavier and unsettling end of prog. The vocalist’s voice has anxiety and vulnerability. We’re now in stormier territory. There are growls and there is tension but I failed to grasp what they were getting worked up about. That does help to secure my engagement, I find. Re-listening to it, I once again appreciated its urgency and the reason for having a heavier track, but for me “White Pinnacles” was out of sync with the rest of the album. “Old Memories” takes us back to regretful Wilsonesque acoustic-backed reflections. Another dreamy instrumental passage provides another stellar highlight before the songs returns to its acoustic self and fades away. “Prognosis” ends the album. It’s like a haunting hymn.
I particularly liked the dreamy quality of “Ineffable”. it ebbs and flows. Its moods can be light, dark, reflective and cloudy. HamaSaari are adept at communicating emotional content, and whilst I’d say that Porcupine Tree are more vivid in their conveyance of verbal images, the musical sensitivity is outstanding on this album, which contains some breathtakingly magical passages.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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