LIVE IN FRANCE 2006

After two studio-albums the Canadian quartet Hamadryad has released a live-CD that was recorded on the Crescendo Festival in France. You can read the enthousiastic comments by the band members about the atmosphere and the enviroment in the booklet. In general Hamadryad sounds dynamic and often exciting featuring lots of bombastic and heavy parts with some mellow moments: a wonderful sampled Mellotron intro followed by a powerful bass, a fiery guitar solo and a spectacular pitchtbend driven synthesizer solo in the opener Sparks And Benign Magic / Self Made Man, raw and biting guitar and sensational keyboard work like a blend of prog metal and Red-era King Crimson in the songs Amora Demonis, Nameless and One Voice, wah-wah guitar, wonderful Mellotron sounds, howling guitar and again spectaculair pitchbend driven synthesizer flights in Polaroid Vendetta, an intro featuring soaring keyboards and gradually a more lush sound ending with a great grand finale with choir-Mellotron and sensitive electric guitar in Still They Laugh Pt. 1 / Pt. 2 and finally a catchy rhythm with blistering guitar and flashy synthesizer runs in ...Action! So a lot of excitement but unfortunately I have to conclude that the vocals are often mediocre and a bit too theatrical and at some moments even a bit of a blow to the music. In my opinion Hamadryad should continue as an instrumental band, that's their quality and I enjoyed it a lot! My rating 3,5 stars.

Live albums can be interesting affairs, but can also reveal a bit too much at times. And in this case, the latter seems to be the case; I suspect they make good studio albums, but as a live band (at least in this concert) some weaknesses dominates a tad too much.

Musically symphonic rock seems to be the foundation for this group, with slight touches of neo-prog in the manner of Marillion heard from time to time. What sets these guys apart are some distinct jazzy influences at times, and what appears to be segments of tunes where the guitarist and keyboardist in particular gets to improvise, adding a distinct fusion edge to the music here. On some tunes a more retro sounding hard rock mood is explored to, with crunchy guitar riffs and 70's sounding organ dominating the soundscapes.

This live recording fails in a few areas though, at least for me. The vocals, main and backing alike, are too accented as well as breaking in places, and in general the vocal performance comes across as weak. The drums sounds too sharp as well, and the mix in general is quite overpowering in places, creating what for me is a soundscape that is too brutal.

Nice tunes and good playing saves this one from oblivion though - it's an ok release but could have been better as I see it. Fans of the band in general, and those who were at the concert where these tunes were recorded in particular, will probably be the ones finding this album to be of interest.