ONE DAY CLOSER TO YESTERDAY

Shumaun is a Progressive Metal band formed by Farhad Hossein in 2015. They have released on album which even during the recording of the album, saw a few line up changes due to some members other commitments. Since then, the line up has been more solidified and a 2nd album 'One Day Closer to Yesterday' was released in early 2019. The current line-up consists of Hossein on vocals, guitar and keyboards, Jose Mora on bass, Tyler Kim on guitars, and Tanvir Tomal on drums.

The album is a story based concept about two souls that met in a preexistence who were bonded by love, but came down to an earthly body, and only one of them has a recollection of the pre-mortal bond, though that bond is obvious to both.

'Sensus Divinitatis' starts as a soft piano and synth led track and vocals coming in about halfway through as an introduction to the story. The vocals are quite emotionally charged and almost too heavy for the soft intro, but definitely get your attention. A beating heart carries you into the next track which starts with heavy tight drumming and guitar with those strong vocals. The choruses are more mellow and synth driven and this alternates back and forth with a heavy guitar solo in the middle. The music is a bit more complex than standard heavy music which makes it progressive. It's not bad, but there is a frustrating fade out at the end (I don't care for fade outs much).

'Fear is' starts out with a mellow guitar arpeggio pattern and a ballad like vocal, this time toned down emotionally, which sounds more suited for the song. Higher vocals sing in tandem. Electric guitar comes in with a driving and announces a heavier change in the song, but it alternates back and forth from cleaner sounds to heavy sounds keeping things somewhat variable and dynamic. 'Nafsi Ammara' continues with this style. 'City of Gold' however, starts to show some more variation in the style, starting with an atmospheric intro which builds into a march rhythm, but it is only a short, transitory type track. 'Central Station' however takes the transitory tracks cue and is a slower and actually quite lovely acoustic and ballad- like track, but the melody is really good. So is the nice instrumental break in the middle that utilizes strummed and picked guitars together. There isn't much prog about it, but it is nice and not too schleppy.

However, as the album continues, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of progressiveness, to it overall. 'Prove Yourself' is definitely heavier, and actually stays that way throughout. This is more of the sound you would expect from a Progressive Metal band, but since it takes several tracks to really get to that point makes you question whether it belongs in that genre, at least for this album. The song is only 3 minutes, so it doesn't get much of a chance to leave a huge impact on the listener however. 'Go' does continue with the heavier sound however, so that is a plus, but it loses a bit in the progressive end. 'Remember Me and I'll Remember You' goes back to the alternating clean and heavy sound of before. The heavy parts try to get the 'Tool' vibe, but it isn't very convincing with the cleaner sections. There is a decent guitar solo in the middle though.

The 15+ minute title track 'One Day Closer to Yesterday' closes out the album. While the other tracks tend to stay around the 4 to 5 minute mark, this longer track gives one the hope that it can deliver on the progressive side a little better. The first 5 minutes are mostly quite mellow and thoughtful, but around 5 minutes, it goes into a heavier section with a more progressive section with a lot of guitar. At 7 minutes is changes to a more acoustic sound with some sentimental sounding vocals and synths. Though there are some nice melodies and changes here, it still doesn't really bring a real feeling of progressive metal overall. There are good sections and there are mediocre sections.

I like the album well enough, but I don't know if I would consider it groundbreaking or heavily progressive. There are some hints to being progressive though, just like there are sections that could have been considered progressive metal, but the fact that it only steps into that genre from time to time makes it less believable at being that style. I would definitely consider it Hard Rock, but not progressive or metal. It's not a bad album, but it is lacking in some areas, so it's a definite 3 star album.

Shumaun initially started as a solo project by Farhad Hossain (vocals, guitars, keyboards). After recording a few demos, he decided to recruit a few friends to help build the project into a full-fledged collaborative band. They have had one or two line-up challenges, even during the recording of the 2015 debut album, which has now settled with Farhad being joined by Jose Mora (bass), Tyler Kim (guitars) and Tanvir Tomal (drums) and they are back with their second. This album has an underlying concept of love gone wrong. The album begins with two souls in a state of pre-existence bonded by love and continues after they are both assigned bodies on Earth. All attempts at a blissful reunion are complicated, as only one of them can recall their state together prior to birth' and yet their connection is undeniable. The album touches on the many real struggles, conflicts, and experiences that romantic relationships might go through' the good, bad, spiritual, and terrestrial.

Musically here we have a band who have been heavily influenced by Porcupine Tree, then bringing the 'Signify' era into a more prog metal state, with the drums especially being incredibly effective. But although there are a great many riffs, loads of technical changes, strong vocals and hooks, for me there is something missing which negates a lot of the good work. It's not that the band are working to a formula, but for some reason I just can't get into this at all, which is quite different to most of the reviews I have seen who are raving over this album as if it is one of the best things they have ever come across. It is clinical, it is clever, but it feels as if there is no soul within it which is incredibly strange given the subject matter. There are some fairly dramatic changes, such as on 'Central Station' with acoustic guitar and emotional vocals, but it just doesn't work for me.

Not a bad album, but to my ears certainly not essential. This is one I highly suggest you listen to before purchase.