Naiad "Hardcore Emotion" CD
[Goodlife]
This Japanese bands drops some really unique material. It's heavy but very melodic, and there's definitely a lot of interesting panning and layering, plus their writing is a lot different as far as note choice and picking patterns are concerned. They mix it up with some clean passages on occasion, but it's pretty consistent for the most part. "Sensuous Tone", which is largely instrumental, starts with lots of lush ambient guitar textures under massive ethereal effects, eventually kicking in with some open chords and melodic distorted chord progressions before the screaming vocals break in for a brief moment. Similar textures make up the wordily titled "Waves of Influence Strike Within What Truly Moves You", bringing to mind the experimentation of Cave In to some degree, though if you ask me Naiad takes that a step further into an atmospheric/experimental realm where their instruments are less recognizable, which is great. "Song of Nature" even utilizes spoken female vocals over driving basslines and clean arpeggios before breaking down into an insanely melodic rhythm with tons of layering and panned harmony lines. At times they do remind me of earlier Shai Hulud, but the vocals are of a more modern death metal screaming variety (with hardcore-ish gang backups) and the structures are simpler and a bit more moderately paced as far as tempos go. The chugging rhythms have a more modern style as well, but there's not an ounce of melodic Swedish influence, thankfully, so I really enjoy the band's approach a lot. As for the recording, the biggest problems are that the vocals are mixed too loud and things are on the thin side, but the forceful energy of the songwriting makes up for most of it. The experimental areas sound excellent, the bass is fine but needs more volume, and for the most part the percussion sounds pretty slick. I don't mind the guitar tone, but I think the mix can take away from some of the details of the layering, so reworking the mix a bit to keep the vocals in check and clear up the guitar parts would be nice. The layout's not bad. Everything is kept simple and consistent with few colors (cream, light green, orange/brown, and black), and there are some small band photos mixed in with images of branches and leaves. The lyrics deal mainly with positivity and references to nature, and even though the English is understandably rough they get the message across. "Silence brings you peaceful mind, Once you are still, The grieving world you will find, We must go yet still forward, We should stop but going backward, With pure heart like a deep blue sea, Let's go deeper till we see, Still forward..." This is good stuff. A bit more diversity wouldn't hurt, and I'd definitely like to hear most fast paced riffing along the lines of what they do in parts of "Hopeful Progress", but this is a promising debut EP indeed. (7/10)
Running time - 21:50, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Believing Dreams, Hopeful Progress]
Goodlife Recordings - http://www.goodliferecordings.com

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