Artist: Nahemah
Title: A New Constellation
Type: CD
Label: Lifeforce Records
By gum Prog is cool again isn't it? For the past few years, probably in no small part to Tool, Opeth, Anathema, Tiamat, and the huge wave of Avant Garde Black Metal bands coming out of Europe, it has been ok to break out the Rush once again and work some spacey sounds into extreme metal. It's certainly been a welcome kick up the backside for a fair few genres that have now lost that impact from the innovative edges they enjoyed in the late 90's and early 00's, and have begun producing a few to many bands that sound exactly the same. So a few proggy elements are always a great way to stand out in an over-saturated scene. However, just as the original wave of prog bands produced Pink Floyd (awesome), it also produced Yes (not awesome)... and the same is still true of the new wave of progressively tinged extreme metal bands.
So Nahemah - their last offering was 'The Second Philosophy', which received an impressive amount of critical praise, and grabbed the attention of the metal press in part because of its accessibility to the casual appreciator of Progressive Death Metal, rather than catering to those who demand twenty minute epics. That trend at least has certainly continued onto this new album – the longest track is a mere seven-and-a-half minutes – which is a single by prog standards. But does this new offering take you on that hypnotic journey that a band such as this should, or are they merely a stepping stone to the sounds of Opeth?
The album's opener 'Much Us' is an Anathema-esque intro that leads into toe tapping melodic death metal – it's a catchy track with a great solo, but it doesn't have that extra kick to take it up a notch. 'Absynthe' its a faster, more manic number with a lot of instruments vying for centre stage (is that a saxophone I hear?)... it is a good one to head bang to but for some reason doesn't really suit its title. 'Follow Me' initially borders on the epic, a little more straight melodic death metal in its construction along the lines of Dark Tranquillity – however the song does loose a lot of its oomph when the clean vocals are favoured more than the death vocals. 'Reaching the Stars' feels a little unbalanced, again its a little more of that stripped down melodic death sound, however this time the clean vocals are the crux of the track and they just seem to fall a little flat. The next track 'The Perfect Depths of the Mermaids' has the honour of the funniest title on the album – it retreads the same ground as 'Follow Me', but it feels a lot more complete and certainly fairs better for little tricks like the use of vocal effects to give it that extra kick. 'Air' in comparison is a short track that almost recalls David Bowies trilogy of Brian Eno collaborations, despite the fact that it doesn't really go anywhere, it does feel like a little gem. 'Under the Mourning Rays' is a standout track, it has the tempo and delivery of an epic melodic track with the embellishments and sexing-up of the proggy sounds. It is also one of the most balanced tracks vocally with the clean and death styles complimenting each other rather than one feeling as though it were thrown in for the sake of it. The penultimate track 'Smoke's Men' is a great spacey feeling track, the samples and electronics compliment the guitar and bass lines, and the vocals cut through perfectly – this is definitely the other standout track on the album.
The album on the whole is really well constructed – it doesn't feel overblown or self-indulgent in the least, instead it is sleeker and more direct than a lot of other albums of this ilk, making it certainly a good one for the casual Opeth or Anathema fan. That said, I felt myself a bit disinterested at times. I was impressed by the skills and musicianship on display, and it definitely doesn't lack passion. But a lot of times the songs didn't manage to grab me beyond that. There were some great riffs and embellishments but they all too often fell short of epic and back into something a little more formulaic.
http://www.nahemahband.com
http://www.myspace.com/nahemahband
Sean M. Palfrey
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