KINDRED

Mat McNerney and his Finnish comrades are settling into an album of LP length a year rhythm, not their only retro characteristic to be sure. While the lyrical themes have remained nature centered, the albums have mostly varied in the degree to which the folk music gene is expressed, or, put another way, exactly how much 1980s new age and dark wave shunts the agreeable folk aside. On "When we are death", this shift was pronounced, while "All Tree" reversed course again. On "Kindred", we have something of a mix of those last 2 offerings, suggesting an ambivalent band at the crossroads.

The first couple of tracks are both among the heaviest statements yet made by HEXVESSEL. "Billion Year Old Being" is a challenging 7 minutes of doom, which gets a thumbs up while failing to convince me this isn't a mere distraction. "Demian" also relies on a heavy riff but is decidedly less significant, and so the early attack fizzles. "Fire of the Mind" is more of a archetypal HEXVESSEL ballad with a succinct message, while "Bog Bodies" is like a DAVID SYLVIAN song plunked in the middle of somebody else's album, when the only appropriate setting is on a DAVID SYLVIAN album. Nice try though. "Phaedra" and "Magical and Damned" are my personal favourites here, the first a Gothic wet dream told in a creepy first Demi God narrative style, and the second an always welcome return to an indictment of humanity's abuse of nature. I just wish the dreamy ending could have closed a loop or two but maybe that was the point.

Like its predecessor, this lacks a truly outstanding number like "Mirror Boy", "Gaia" or "Cosmic Truth". I remain hopeful that Matt and his not so merry band mates have a masterpiece still in them, but, apart from a little more variation on the dirge rapture end of the scale, this is a more or less kindred spirit to the last couple of HEXVESSEL outings.