NEITHER MOTH NOR RUST

I was surprised to see a new Hanging Garden's album popping up in the list of promos, given that the Finnish melodic doomsters have released their 7th full-length album Skeleton Lake only a few months ago. I really liked that album, so I did not hesitate to give a spin to this new opus, an EP titled Neither Moth Nor Rust. It contains six tracks for a total duration just above 25 minutes. Music-wise, it feels a lot like an appendix to Skeleton Lake, albeit with more freedom to explore sonic spaces that were perhaps left somewhat in the background in the full-length release. As such, the new EP makes for an interesting complement to the Finns' 2021 album, although one that would probably mostly appeal to fans of the band rather than newcomers.

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]