NAUTICUS

The band lost the singer Jani Ramo in the process (luckily, because he was not good) and they used four different vocalists and a choir in substitution. The production was again taken by the drummer and leader of the band Tuomas Rajala and everything sounds just fine, even better than in their previous effort The Wait.

The style of the band follows the path created by the two previous albums offering another (big) dose of alternative prog metal with avant-garde elements and some experimentations with passages which bring Tool to mind and some Mastodon's Leviathan sounding guitars very appropriated for the nautical ambience that the band tries to imprint to Disappear in Blue.

But sadly, the song writing is a bit irregular throughout the whole album, especially in longer songs like Arrival and Hyeronimus when some disjointed ideas and repetitive passages pass a bill which is too big to overcome. And though the vocal production is much better than the two previous records of the band, they still lack some personality to be really remarkable.

Best tracks: Magma (the typical Nauticus semi-distorted guitars appear here, and the syncopated vocals are the best of the album), Singularity (catchy, beautiful and hypnotic track, maybe Nauticus's best) and Glass Pyramids (gorgeous female vocals and some post-rock influences for another fine song)

Conclusion: despite a pair of very good ideas and some fine songs, Disappear in Blue is too long and too disjointed to be considered excellent. It has remarkable moments like the aforementioned best tracks and the post-rock ambiental and oppressive tunes Desolation and Whale Bones, but the lack of catchier moments, the over dimensioned length and the absence of a true vocalist are problems which are too big to ignore.

Nevertheless, the album has some kind of mysterious charm which makes you desire to submerge in it again. And of course, Disappear in Blue makes me want to hear more from Nauticus, because I know that with a bit of self contention and catchier song writing, they will be able to make an excellent experimental prog metal album in the future.

My rating: ***

And just like A Wave to Carry of Out, the equally self-produced The Wait is another travel into a very oppressive and dark prog-metal world, full of influences of post-metal and alternative bands like Tool and other experimental acts like Neurosis or Voivod.

Luckily, with The Wait Tuomas Rajala and his colleagues achieved a much more compelling and diverse song writing, with some glimpses of more positive melodies (the initial piano of Ascend, the beautiful guitars of the beginning of A Delayed End), post-rock (Kalmisto) and even classic heavy metal (some riffs of As Barriers Falls), which along with the original drumming of Rajala and some very Nauticus-sounding guitars and piercing bass lines, make this album more than a Tool-wannabe.

Sadly, some repetitiveness in a pair of tracks, the weak and ugly vocals of Jani Ramo and other forgettable moments like Their Whereabouts prevents this album to reach a higher rating.

Best Tracks: Constructing the Liquid Plains (an oppressive crescendo in the vein of Tool), A Delayed End (I specially like the initial guitar melody) and Kalmisto (a fine post-rock tracks which reminds me to the British band Blueneck)

Conclusion: The Wait is a much better produced and written album than the Nauticus previous effort A Wave to Carry Us Out. And it's also more diverse, melodic and catchy, resulting in an estimable album very appropriated for people who like the most alternative and avant-garde branch of prog-metal.

My rating: ***

A Wave to Carry Us Out is a dark album. The production is raw and a bit amateur, but that emphasizes the obscure and menacing ambient that this band tries to create with their music. The riffs are a curious mixture between hard and distorted melodies much in the vein of Tool, especially in the polyrhythmic sections, and the harder moments of Pain of Salvation, with some glimpses of other acts like Mastodon especially in the odd and strange clean electric guitar melodies, like in the beginning of Still Silent.

Sadly, I think that the songwriting of the album is not compelling enough to resist a long time listening. There are a pair of good moments and some catchy melodies, but after the first two or three songs, the repetitive structures of the compositions turn wasted and boring. And that's a pity, because Tuomas Rajala's drumming is impressive and Juuso Jalava's bass is also very good.

No the same can be said about the singer, nevertheless. His singing lacks something, some magic or charisma to be convincing, being another weak point of this promising but ultimately flawed album.

Best Tracks: Still Silent (a Mastodon/Tool reminiscent song with impressive drums at the beginning), Nothing Floats (I especially like the guitar melodies in this one) and ...As If He's Ever Seen (typical Nauticus instrumental, dark and hypnotical)

Conclusion: with a better singer and a more focused songwriting, A Wave to Carry Us Out could have been a very good modern prog-alternative-metal album, in the vein of modern bands like Haken, Leprous or Soen. They had the energy, the musicianship and the right attitude to achieve that goal.

However, and sadly, the result is a pretty forgettable record which is interesting to be heard two or three times, but ultimately boring and not catchy enough to resist a continued listening.

My rating: **

'Magma' features Sakari Ojanen on vocals. This strong composition shows well the many strengths of Nauticus. Heaviness is not there just for the sake of metal, it intertwines effortlessly with the deep soundscape full of atmosphere. The album wastes no time in showing its many-sided nature, as the opener is followed by first of the three ethereal, ambient-oriented little instrumental pieces, 'Jesus of Lübeck', that seamlessly leads into an intensive Prog Metal piece 'Claimed by the Sea', one of the four tracks over 10 minutes in length. Again there are both growl-approaching power and some more nuanced moments in a dynamic balance.

The core quartet has two guitarists and no keyboardist, but they manage to create surprisingly colourful sounds containing Post- Rockish sonic ambiguity, with occasional synth-like brightness on guitars. Drummer and primary composer Tuomas Rajala plays piano or Glockespiel on a couple of tracks. More prog than metal oriented 'Singularity' is sung by Jyri Kuokka, who happily doesn't sound primarily a Heavy/Metal vocalist. 11-minute 'Arrival' kicks off with a burst of rage, but this track too is graced by wide dynamics and atmopsheric depth. Here and there the listener can also focus on the excellent bass/drum work.

The final song 'Glass Pyramids' gives the main vocals to Anette Kaukonen whose backing vocals earlier on the album didn't quite get the deserved spot. A pity then that her beautiful voice isn't at first central on this song either. But enough to make this one a highlight. As I'm more or less an anti-metal music listener, it comes as no surprise that I appreciate especially the ambient instrumentals as one important ingredient to this album. Despite my own zones of uncomfort and unfamiliarity concerning angry metal elements, I sincerely think this is a very good and excellently produced album in the experimental/post metal subgenre.

The nearly an hour-long album is an ambitious conceptual work that was done "furiously within a period of two and a half years. An apocalypctical lyrical theme flows through an experimental, psychedelical and visionary landscape of rock, metal and alternative." I sense the full devotion and I believe some might even consider this a masterpiece of the subgenre. The tension is very strong, the mood is dark and dystopic but not totally devastating. In the sound especially the powerful, complex drumming and the angst-fuelled vocals steal the attention. The main group doesn't feature keyboard player but there are some keys involved. The two guitarists are not trying to act like attention-starving guitar heroes, instead they always serve the whole. I appreciate the absence of more typical Metal elements of high speed and technically oriented "X notes per second" approach, and the existence of even delicate nuances in the playing. But to me personally this album is too depressing, and the unmelodic compositions feel flat and samey even if they aren't necessarily that.

Thankfully there are two instrumentals, the short 'Their Whereabouts' which is rather calm soundscape experiment, and the 11-minute closer 'Kalmisto' (an old-fashioned word for graveyard) which for me is the clear highlight with the dominance of piano and acoustic guitar. A beautiful track in its melancholia.

At first I was feeling almost angry by this music, mostly because of the angst growl in the vocals. That's one thing I simply can't stand in Metal music. But now I'm anyway glad I managed to write a decent review outside my comfort zone. After all, this is worth recommendations.