HANGING GARDEN

EPs often give artists freedom to explore more diverse and adventurous landscapes that may be instead sacrificed in full-length releases, where sonic coherence is often a priority. Neither Moth Nor Rust is no exception in this sense, and finds Hanging Garden gently experimenting with new influences, while at the same time retaining their identity as melodic doom/death band. The title-track branches out towards sonorities that remind me of Amorphis in the late 1990s, rich in folk and psychedelic undertones and with big, ear-worming melodies at the heart of the song. The interplay between growls, male cleans, and female cleans is very entertaining, each vocal style adding its own different shade to the composition. The next two tracks are even more interesting. "The Last Dance" is based on huge dynamics, swinging majestically between pop-tinged verses with tastefully autotuned vocals, an ultra-heavy and dissonant bridge with double-tracked growls, and a melancholic chorus where Riikka Hatakka's subdued vocals truly shine. "And Leave All Love Behind" opens with gentle piano arpeggios and acoustic guitars, before developing into a quasi-ambient tune that again draws on folk and psychedelia as its core influences.

The second-half of the EP is somewhat less interesting. "The Raven Portrait" is a short piano interlude, while "On the Shore of Eternity" is perhaps the most conventional track on the EP in the sense that is closest to the material from Skeleton Lake, with marked doom / dark metal influences that may delight fans of bands like Katatonia or Anathema. The EP closes with "Field of Reed", which is actually the biggest surprise here. The song is a remake of the homonymous track from the band's 2021 LP, completely rearranged as electronic pop, with beats, keyboards and samples dominating over the rest of the instrumentation. It's not a terribly successful experiment, in my opinion, partly because the song relies on somewhat weak melodies that do not really have the strength to transform it in an electro-pop hit single. Moreover, in 2022 this type of remakes come as no surprise to metal fans, as goth/doom metal bands have engaged in electro-pop experimentation since the late 1990s. As such "Field of Reed" does not really seem to add much, neither to the band's catalogue nor to the genre as a whole.

Despite the slightly weaker second half, Neither Moth Nor Rust is an interesting EP that fans of the band may want to grab (the physical CD is limited to 200 copies, so hurry up if you are interested in this release). Although there is no revolution in the band's sound here, the EP brings to the fore influences that may have been slightly buried on the recent LP, which is always interesting to hear. In fact, I would have liked Hanging Garden to spend more time developing these influences across more songs, ideally in the context of a more organic, full-length release. But perhaps this is what EPs' main function actually is: leaving you wanting to hear more from the band and curious to see what they will do on their next full-length album. And this cannot possibly be a bad thing, can it?

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

The dualism between male (both growls and cleans) and female clean vocals is indeed one of the main strengths of the record, making for a varied and interesting vocal performance. You may think "beauty and the beast" and that that genre has been done to the death ? but Hanging Garden's approach to the male/female duets is actually quite different from that of bands like Theatre of Tragedy or Tristania, mainly because Riikka Hatakka stays clear from the ethereal, soprano-like singing that is typical of the genre. Her voice is instead much warmer and fuller, reminding me of Stefanie Duchêne (Flowing Tears, another great melodic doom/gothic act from the early 2000s) or Anathema's Lee Douglas. Riikka's performance is spellbinding and is perfectly complemented by Toni's blackened growls and croony cleans ? pushing the record into blackened gothic territories with songs like opener "Kuura" or the single "Winter's Kiss", which also features backing vocals by Jaani Peuhu (Swallow the Sun) and is probably the catchiest and most immediate song of the album.

The other strength of Skeleton Lake is its ability to strike a great balance between melody and heaviness. The sound is thick and full, with distorted guitars, keys and bass forming a formidable wall that transmits a sense of bleakness and dread to the listener. But the songs are also full of beautiful melodies, conveyed by the vocals but also by the guitar that often provides melodic lines and riffs in a style that reminds me a lot of Katatonia. Songs like "Nowhere Haven" and "Tunturi" feature those vaguely dissonant, minimally distorted melodic guitar riffs that scream "Anders Nyström". It's a great formula that is satisfying on multiple levels, whether you just want something to headbang to or whether you are looking for an album for quiet, dark evenings by the fireplace.

There are also a few surprises thrown in the mix ? showing a desire to push boundaries that may appeal to prog metal fans. "Kuura" suddenly descends into a Floydian, spacey mid-section with filtered vocals. It's an odd choice, but it works a charm. "When the Music Dies" explores folk territories with its gentle 3/4 tempo and dreamy melodies, while "Tunturi" features the domra, a folk string instrument similar to a lute. The song structure and arrangements are also quite varied, moving between calm acoustic sections and more frenetic heavy parts, continuously accelerating and slowing down ? which makes for an interesting and never boring listening experience.

The album flows away pleasantly, with a few moments of excellence ("Kuura", "Winter's Kiss", "Skeleton Lake"), albeit it loses a bit steam in the second half, where pieces like "Road of Bones" and "Field of Reeds" are melodically weaker and somewhat dull. The weaker second-half contributes to the impression I had that the album somewhat lacks a satisfying development: taken one by one, the songs are great but after the first 4/5 pieces one gets the sense that the album is "stuck on repeat", as the subsequent songs follow a similar structure and convey similar emotions as the earlier ones. I always wish albums would take me places, but that requires a sequencing of songs that develop a full emotional arc, something I somewhat missed here. I also missed a bit more nuance in the sound production. Music so varied and articulated as the one on Skeleton Lake would have deserved a more refined production to appreciate the songs in all their subtleties.

Despite these criticisms, Skeleton Lake is a very strong album, and one of the records I enjoyed the most in this first half of 2021. The album jacket contains a "FFO" line that mentions Katatonia, Anathema, Swallow the Sun and Ulver. It's a pretty accurate description of the influences that pervade the 9 songs of the record, especially for Katatonia and Swallow the Sun. If you are a fan of any of these bands, you should give Skeleton Lake a try ? I promise you won't be disappointed.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

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]