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"Not recommended for fragile minds and exclusive lovers of joyful and festive melodies, "Skeleton Lake" is nevertheless a captivating work of blinding beauty."
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4/5
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"Into That Good Night" (2019) had succeeded in installing Hanging Garden in higher division while acting as confirmation of the strong identity of the Finnish formation. This last one had also been able to celebrate a happy event with the marriage of its two singers, Toni Toivonen becoming Toni Hatakka since he took the name of his wife. But here is, as for all the other groups on the planet, the pandemic of the Covid 19 blocked everyone at home and it was necessary to find parades to the confinement.
It is not surprising that 'Kuura' opens the hostilities by plunging the listener into an endless winter. Hanging Garden always plays on contrasts. The one between the clear vocals and the growls, alternating melancholic softness and heartbreaking and frightening anger. But also the one between the telluric guitars and the aerial keyboards. If the continuation leans on common foundations from now on typical of the Finnish sextet, it does not sink for all that in monotony. Indeed, the territories of the alternative rock which had already been touched in the past are here explored more deeply. It is the case on 'Faith' which combines a bass line oscillating between doom and gothic and very post rock keyboards for a captivating result and in balance above the abyss. 'Nowhere Haven' or 'Winter's Kiss' are close to Thence's compatriots while accelerating the tempo in the middle of landscapes with a bewitching, icy and pale beauty.
"Skeleton Lake" reveals itself as a journey in suspense between depths haunted by pain and anger, and fragile lights towards which the souls trapped in this purgatory seek to escape. 'Tunturi' and its Finnish vocals draw us towards the flames of gehenna with its doom-death worthy of Swallow The Sun while 'When The Music Dies' warms our bruised spirits. In an atmosphere worthy of Anathema, bouncing drums and a few haunting piano notes melt the snow we thought would last forever. After following the painful procession of 'Road Of Bones' and trying to escape the darkness by clinging to the sharp riffs of 'Fields Of Reeds', the listener dives into the epic self-titled track. Between life and death, the captive souls of the icy waters struggle not to be caught by the howls of creatures coming from the gloomy depths, while the female vocals try to bring them back to the light that hardly filters through the frozen surface.
If some discographic productions of the last months try to give us back the moral, "Skeleton Lake" prefers to translate the deep dejection in which a big part of the population ended up plunging during this interminable sanitary crisis. This last one is compared here to an endless winter during which the fragile hope of a spring that will eventually arrive is nevertheless maintained. Not recommended for fragile minds and exclusive lovers of joyful and festive melodies, this opus is nevertheless a captivating work of blinding beauty that the most adventurous will know how to explore to discover its treasures as precious as painful. - Official website
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TRACK LISTING:
01. Kuura - 4:41
02. Faith - 5:08
 03. Nowhere Haven - 4:31
04. Winter's Kiss - 4:12
05. When The Music Dies - 3:59
06. Tunturi - 5:37
07. Road Of Bones - 4:52
08. Field Of Reeds - 5:29
09. Skeleton Lake - 7:38
LINEUP:
Jussi Hämäläinen: Chant / Guitares
Jussi Kirves: Basse
Mikko Kolari: Guitares
Nino Hynninen: Claviers
Riikka Hatakka: Chant
Sami Forssten: Batterie
Toni Hatakka: Chant
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READERS
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STAFF:
4/5 (1 view(s))
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OTHER(S) REVIEWS ABOUT HANGING GARDEN
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