HADAL SHERPA

3.5 stars. HADAL SHERPA are a five piece band out of Finland and this is their debut from 2017. Pretty much keyboards, guitar, bass and drums with Vesa here being the multi instrumentalist, composer and leader also adding guitar, keyboards as well as bouzouki. I really like the cover art and this was self released by the band. The music really comes across to me as symphonic space rock with a lot of mid-paced music and a strong ethnic vibe on some tracks. HIDRIA SPACEFOLK might be a good comparison. This is instrumental and fairly long at 68 minutes. We get some guests adding flute, trumpet and percussion all on that final track although the flute will show up on the first two songs as well. Some cello from the bass player too.

I have a top three although "Ikaros" for me stands out as the best bar none. I really like the way it sounds with that picked guitar and brighter sound. Some organ too and they amp things up eventually. The way it ends is really cool the way it sort of disintegrates to a spacey ending. "Heracleion" is the next track and my second favourite. It's the longest at over 11 minutes. Great spacey intro then we're teased by the bass followed by drums and more. Spacey synths late. "Abyss" is the final top three and this one is about the atmosphere early on. Bass and haunting sounds 2 minutes in. It does get heavier later. There's some ethnic dominated pieces like "Marracech" not surprisingly along with "Chafa Azeno" and the closer "Black Elk".

A lot of positive reviews for this one, it's quite the debut. Having spent about a year now listening to psychedelic music I can say the is really good but down the way a fair amount when it comes to favourites of this stye. OZRIC TENTACLE fans seem to dig this album as well. I do recommend it, there's lots to enjoy here but it's just not a keeper for me.