Nahemah

It’s not bad, not superb, but good is certainly not a good enough description. That sentence says everything about A New Constellation. A proper analysis of the music reveals that you are listening to dark metal with a progressive tweak. I therefore expected it to be more compactly fabricated and consist of multiple layers.

Unfortunately that is not what it is. At first I thought this was one of those albums that needs to grow on you, but after a few listens I have let go of that idea. Not that this is bad, absolutely not. Just listen to Under The Mourning Rays.

In the musical parts you’ll find mighty impressive switches and breaks and on top of that some clean vocals. Because this singer has one hell of a shouting voice. I really don’t like him at all. Even in the sporadic clean vocals he doesn’t impress.

What does is The Perfect Death Of The Mermaids, with influences that come directly from The Gathering’s Mandylion, a real first class breathtaking classic. Because of it being too shallow, I can’t rate this album too high. There isn’t enough tension.

A few progressive parts remind me of Riverside. But where those men heighten the excitement by every note, Nahemah has it running horizontally. Even the dark metal passages lack enough power to lift the cd up to certain heights. This side of the spectrum is beyond their grasp. If they would vary some more it would sound a lot more inviting. Now it all sounds too much alike, which makes you lose interest.

That doesn’t take away the fact that there are a lot of fun parts on this album as well, ones that take you by the throat musically. it is this what makes up most of the album and which makes it come higher up the ladder than my former comments would suggest. It makes this a pleasing record, not a really good one. That’s why good is not a good enough description.

Read more: reviews